Placing too many burdens on people who want to gamble safely risks driving them towards the black market, former gambling minister John Whittingdale has warned.

Whittingdale, also formerly the culture secretary, told the annual meeting of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) in London on Thursday that some proposals for affordability checks were “extraordinary” and that he believed there was no evidence that gambling advertising caused increased problem gambling.

He was speaking with the government in the midst of a review of gambling legislation, with a white paper expected in the spring.

According to a report last year by PwC, the number of people already using black market gambling websites has doubled to around 460,000.