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According to an extensive news report by RÚV’s investigative programme Kveikur, Icelandic people are expected to spend approximately 36 billion ISK in illegal gambling this year. As cited by RÚV, Icelandic gamblers do illegal business with around 600 foreign gambling sites, according to a study by the American technical intelligence platform Yield Sec.
Six companies in Iceland are licenced by the government to run lottery or gambling operations: Happdrætti Háskóla Íslands, Happdrætti DAS, Happdrætti SÍBS, Íslenskar Getraunir, Íslensk getspá, and Íslandsspil.
These companies are legally obliged to donate their total earnings to “public goods”, such as sports organisations, charity, or humanitarian operations.
Furthermore, the law states that anyone who operates a gambling business without the necessary permits may face up to 6 months in prison.
Despite these stipulations, international, unlicensed, gambling businesses have made ground in Iceland, escaping domestic taxation, fees, and regulations.
Previous spending underestimated
Happdrætti Háskóla Íslands hired Yield Sec to conduct a market analysis of the Icelandic online gambling sector. Yield Sec specialises in consultancy regarding online illegal gambling operations.
In a conversation with RÚV, Yield Sec CEO Ismail Vali claimed that the company identified 561 illegal gambling businesses operating in Iceland.
Furthermore, Yield Sec’s analysis showed that 56 percent of the Icelandic population had engaged with legal or illegal online betting, including liking social media posts, clicking adverts, visiting webpages, or directly gambling on a legal or illegal channel.
In a parliamentary meeting, Minister of Judicial Affairs Þorbjörg Sigríður Gunnlaugsdóttir estimated that Icelanders spend approximately 10-12 billion ISK each year in online foreign gambling sites. According to 2024 data from Statistics Iceland, the amount charged by these sites to Icelandic credit cards amounted closer to 18 billion ISK. This year, the amount is estimated to reach about 22 billion ISK.
According to RÚV, these numbers only apply to credit and debit cards. In Yield Sec’s investigation, they concluded that almost 19 billion ISK had been spent on foreign gambling sites in the first half of 2025, when accounting for every payment option available, including cryptocurrency.
According to Yield Sec, approximately 80 percent of Icelandic betting is conducted on foreign websites, meaning that a majority of Icelandic betting revenue does not circulate back into the domestic economy.
