🔥 Illegal Gambling Volumes Are Staggering: What's Happening in the iGaming Market

Hi everyone! We've gathered the most notable developments from the past few days in one post. Let's take a look at what's new in the market.

📌 Illegal Market: Scale and Crackdowns

— According to GCI, the total GGR of the US online gambling market reached $125.6 billion in 2025, with $97.4 billion coming from the illegal segment. The legal segment generated $28.3 billion in GGR, while the overall market grew by 39.4% year over year.

— In 2025, the volume of illegal online gambling in the EU reached €91.6 billion, up 14%. European governments may have lost up to €23 billion in tax revenue.

— The Romanian regulator ONJN added around 800 websites operated by unlicensed iGaming operators to its blacklist. This is the largest single addition to the list in the agency's history.

— The Santiago Court of Appeals approved a mechanism for blocking unlicensed iGaming operator websites via DNS. New domains can now be added to the blocklist without a separate court proceeding.

— In South Korea, 806 people under the age of 19 voluntarily admitted to participating in illegal gambling as part of a campaign against unlawful gaming.

— Asian vs. European Casino Player Payment Habits: What’s the Difference for iGaming?

— Brazilian players lost $12.5 billion on betting in 2025. According to the study, illegal bookmakers account for 41–51% of the market.

📌 New Rules for Players and the Market

— The government has transferred the unified online monitoring system for the gambling market to the company "Gaming Analysis and Monitoring System." The contract is valid for 15 years, while the company has six months to implement the electronic system.

— More than six transactions to betting companies totaling over KZT 300,000 ($644) may make it more difficult to obtain a loan. The relevant criteria have already been established by the Central Bank of Kazakhstan.

— Complete Kazakhstan Guide: Offers, Case Studies, Regulation & More

— In Indonesia, nearly 1.5 million families lost access to government assistance due to suspected links to illegal gambling.

— Uzbekistan has issued its first licenses to operate in the regulated gambling market. However, the licenses did not go to the market's biggest players.

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👉 Which news story surprised you most this week? Drop it in the comments.

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⚡️ Where to Find New Growth Opportunities? We've Rounded Up the Most Interesting Catalog Updates.

It's been a strong week: outstanding conversion rates across Tier-1 and LATAM, plus high payouts in Europe. Only the offers worth testing.

📌Argentina — added to a 5-GEO offer. Click2Reg 70–80%, Reg2Dep 25–35% — the strongest conversion rates of the week.
📌United Kingdom — new offer with payouts of up to $270 for cumulative deposits. Reg2Dep 75% — a conversion rate rarely seen in the UK.
📌Europe + LATAM, 11 GEOs — new offer with Click2Reg above 80%, Reg2Dep above 38%, and a repeat rate above 85%. Includes ready-to-use promos: 100 no-deposit free spins with real cash withdrawals and wager-free bonuses.
📌Europe, 18 GEOs — new offer with payouts of €200–300. PPC/SEO/ASO with no KPI requirements.
📌 France — payouts increased across all traffic sources, with PPC now paying up to €280. Brand/Cross/Crash traffic accepted, Reg2Dep 35%. The product has also received a design update.
📌 UK, Netherlands, Portugal & France — up to €330 for a minimum deposit. One of the highest-paying offers in the catalog, available through your account manager.
📌 Five new European offers from a single advertiser covering DK, FI, DE, IE, IT, NO, RO, SK, ES, and CH. Payouts up to €280. Multiple brands allow parallel testing across the same GEO pool.
📌 LATAM — for Peru, Facebook* Apps/In-App/UAC (slots only) are now available. Facebook* Slot traffic is now accepted across all GEOs in the offer. Up to $40 for PPC/SEO traffic.
📌 Senegal, Burkina Faso & DR Congo — new GEOs added to a 6-country offer (for Kenya, Captainsbet operates under a local license).

More updates are available from your account manager or in the 3SNET catalog.

👇 Which offers are you testing first?

* Recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia.

✅ We Refunded an Advertiser for Traffic from One of Our Own Affiliates. Here's Why.

In the CPA model, a network has two clients: the affiliate, who expects to get paid, and the advertiser, who expects high-quality traffic. Most of the time, their interests align. Sometimes, they don't.

The situation. An advertiser accepted and paid for traffic from one of our affiliates. Later, new information about that affiliate raised concerns: another advertiser classified their traffic as fraudulent, and our verification received the same feedback from at least two CPA networks and two direct advertisers—fraud and/or extremely low-quality traffic.

Technically, we could have done nothing. The traffic for the first offer had already been approved, paid for, and no complaints had been raised at the time.

We chose a different approach—and refunded the advertiser.

✔️ Here's why:
→ Advertisers pay for real players, not numbers in a report. If we have legitimate reasons to question the quality of the traffic, that's our responsibility—not the advertiser's risk.

→ Advertiser trust is the foundation of the entire network. The payouts, exclusives, and terms our affiliates receive exist because advertisers trust us.

→ Honest affiliates benefit from this approach. The cleaner the network's traffic pool, the higher the payouts and the more flexible the KPIs become for everyone else.

A special thank you to our industry colleagues.

There is a private community of CPA networks where only networks participate, sharing information about both scam affiliates and scam advertisers. That's where we requested feedback on this partner—and received confirmation from colleagues who had already dealt with their traffic.

📌 We're glad this community exists. Thank you to everyone involved—you reinforced our confidence that we made the right decision.

📌 What we do consistently:
— verify traffic quality not only before approval but also after payouts;
— request and share feedback on partners within the professional CPA community;
— permanently ban accounts when fraud is confirmed—with no exceptions;
— resolve disputes financially whenever the issue originates from our traffic pool.

Fraud is an industry-wide problem, and it won't be solved by anti-fraud software alone. It requires networks that are willing to take responsibility for their traffic and openly share information. Together, we can make the affiliate industry more transparent, trustworthy, and sustainable.

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Advertisers: discuss cooperation and launch your campaigns here.
Affiliates with high-quality traffic: we've prepared the best conditions for you — browse the 3SNET catalog.

What do you think? Should a CPA network refund advertisers for traffic that was already approved? 👇

🔥 Your Legitimate Traffic Can Be Flagged Because of Someone Else's Bots

AI fraud has reached CPA payouts. As the share of synthetic traffic—bots, multi-accounts, and bonus hunters—continues to grow, operators are tightening their anti-fraud systems. As a result, even legitimate affiliates can get caught in the filter simply because their traffic statistically resembles suspicious activity.

📌 Why the Affiliate Channel Is a Vulnerable Point
Fraud can begin long before users reach the operator's website—in the landing page, pre-landing page, advertising account, affiliate chain, or tracker.

— A long attribution chain: the operator sees the affiliate ID, the network sees the sub ID, and the media buyer sees only the aggregated traffic source. No one has the full picture.
— Different KPIs: affiliates focus on CPA and approval rates, while operators care about NGR and player retention.
— Delayed verification: FTDs appear in reports immediately, while KYC, device checks, and payment verification happen later. By the time a payout dispute arises, the budget has already been spent.

📌 What Protects Your Campaigns — and Your Payouts
The core principle is transparency.

🔹 Use only approved traffic sources. Sending offers to sub-affiliates without permission is a major red flag for anti-fraud systems.
🔹 Keep a complete traffic map: traffic source, campaign, creative, landing page, and sub ID. Save dashboard screenshots, logs, and UTM parameters—they are your evidence in case of a dispute.
🔹 Compare data across your ad platform, tracker, and affiliate network reports. Resolve discrepancies before scaling, not after.
🔹 Look beyond CR2Reg: monitor CR2Dep, KYC pass rate, repeat deposits, and NGR. These are the metrics operators use to determine traffic quality.
🔹 Test every new traffic source with a small budget and scale only after confirming the quality of the cohort.
🔹 If you notice unusual activity, inform your account manager before a payout dispute begins. It shifts your position from "defending yourself" to "working as a partner."


In 2026, success is no longer measured only by FTD volume. The ability to prove the quality and origin of your traffic has become just as important. The strongest partnerships will be those where transparent attribution and predictable payouts go hand in hand. That's exactly the role we see ourselves playing.

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Now be honest 👇

Have you ever had your payouts reduced because of "fraud"?
👍 — Yes, but I proved my traffic was legitimate.
⚡️ — Yes, and I never got the money.
❤️‍🔥 — No, but this post definitely got me thinking.
😂 — I am the fraud.

Have you ever had a payout rejected even though your traffic was completely legitimate? Share your experience in the comments—we'd love to collect real-world cases. 👇

🔥 What Kind of Affiliate Are You: An Analyst, Tester, or GEO Hunter?

Adsterra is celebrating its birthday — happy birthday! 🎁 13 years in our industry is already serious experience.

And they've decided to celebrate not only with a party, but with something useful too — an interactive quiz What's Your Essence.

A few questions and you'll discover what kind of affiliate you are: an analyst, a tester, a GEO hunter, or a master of steady growth. At the end, you'll receive a personalized Essence Card featuring one of 9 archetypes.

Along the way, you'll get affiliate marketing insights, campaign optimization tips, and a chance to find a promo code for new users.

🎁 And, of course, there are prizes:
• 5 winners will receive 350 Merch Points in the Adsterra Swag Lounge.
• Share your Essence Card on Instagram*, Facebook*, LinkedIn, or X with the hashtag #AdsterraEssence and tag Adsterra for a chance to win $100.

📅 You can participate until August 31, 2026, and the winners will be announced on September 2, 2026. When taking the quiz, use the email address linked to your active Adsterra account.

Take the quiz, discover your affiliate archetype, and celebrate Adsterra's 13th anniversary! 😎

📌 TAKE THE QUIZ HERE 📌

👉 LEARN MORE ABOUT ADSTERRA

* Recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia.