How Unregulated Gambling Is Draining BILLIONS From the U.S. Economy | Ismail Vali
5/29/20261 hr
Ryan Alford sits down with Ismail Vali for a conversation that turns online gambling into a much bigger business and policy discussion. Ismail explains why he believes illegal and unregulated operators still dominate huge parts of the online gambling market, why legal operators have struggled to capture the economics people assumed they would, and how regulators remain behind the technology that changed the game years ago. He also lays out how offshore gambling, illegal streaming, and prediction-style products are creating a broader ecosystem that is harder to regulate and easier for consumers to stumble into than most people realize. Ryan brings the entrepreneur and free-market lens, pushing on consumer choice, overregulation, and where the line should actually be drawn. That back-and-forth makes this episode especially strong for listeners interested in business, policy, regulation, digital markets, and the unintended consequences of pretending a fast-growing market does not exist. Topics Covered The economics of illegal online gambling Why legal gaming markets are still underperforming expectations The role of offshore operators in value extraction Why some states still have no legal online gambling How prediction markets and other gray-area products fit in Why Ismail says the market is already here whether lawmakers accept it or not Consumer choice versus consumer protection Ryan Alford and Ismail Vali on what sensible regulation could look like Ryan Alford Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/ Ismail Vali / Gaming Compliance International Website: https://gamingcompliance.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ismailvali/ GCI Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gaming-compliance-international
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsIsmail Vali· Guest0:00
I'm not looking at regulated gambling as being a source of great news because they are still fighting this battle of, "We got brought in over the top of what was already a dominant unregulated marketplace." It's not like when they regulated gaming from twenty-eighteen onwards in America. That stuff wasn't new. It's not like they just went, "Hey, how do you fancy selling some online gaming? That'd be a really great idea." It was already there.
Ryan Alford· Host0:20
Yeah.
Ismail Vali· Guest0:20
It's been there for three decades, okay?
Ryan Alford· Host0:21
Yeah.
Ismail Vali· Guest0:21
[laughs] It wasn't anything new that happened then.
Ryan Alford· Host0:23
No.
Ismail Vali· Guest0:23
All that we did was graft on top of an existing illegally dominated marketplace some regulated licensed gaming.
Speaker 20:29
[upbeat music] You don't win by following the playbook, you win by rewriting it. Seven hundred episodes deep with the people who actually built something real. No theory, no fluff, no shortcuts. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford.
Ryan Alford· Host0:50
Online gambling has become one of the biggest hidden economies in the world, and most people have no idea how much of it's happening outside of legal regulated systems, and many people have no idea whose hands it's truly going into. Today, I'm sitting down with Ismail Vali, President of Gaming Compliance International and founder of Yieldsec, to unpack the scale of unregulated gambling, illegal streaming, prediction markets, and what he calls the gamification of everything. Ismail, what's up, man? Welcome to the show.
Ismail Vali· Guest1:20
Thank you very much for having me, Ryan. Pleasure to be here.
Ryan Alford· Host1:22
Where are you from originally?
Ismail Vali· Guest1:23
I'm from England originally. Mixed race, parents from different places. Father's Indian African, and my mother was Dutch. And born and raised in London in the UK,