GambleAware says bulk of donations in 2023-24 period from four companies

GambleAware has continued to receive large sums of donations from the gambling sector, bringing in a total of £49.5 million in 2023/24, which is allocated to work on various public health campaigns, training, and education programs, treatment services, research, and harm prevention.

The report comes at a time when the government and the sector are moving sedately but firmly towards a complete overhaul of the country’s gambling laws, with a strong focus on player protection. Yet, the snap election called by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak taking place on July 4 could upset the expediency of how these new measures are implemented..

Largest gambling company contribute 94% of all money

GambleAware has published a detailed breakdown of where the money came from and noted that just four companies had contributed 94% of the funds, amounting to £46.6m, saying something unflattering about the rest of the business in the country.

The government, in contrast, is seeking to obligate a mandatory payment into a problem gambling fund to counteract the perceived pernicious effects of the activity, and further strengthen player protection measures through a series of contested but ultimately reasonable measures.

GambleAware itself has been a vociferous proponent of a measure called "a statutory levy," that will obligate companies to donate a part of their proceeds at a fixed amount to help research, prevent, and treat problem gambling.

Until such a moment, argues the organization, it is more or less left at the mercy of voluntary contributions by operators in Great Britain who have been relatively generous with their funding, especially in the case of the top contributors.

GambleAware CEO Zoë Osmond drove home the same point, pointing out to the statutory levy concept and why it would matter.

"While we await the implementation of the new statutory levy, donations from the voluntary funding system are key to ensure GambleAware can continue to deliver the essential gambling harm prevention and treatment programmes we commission," Osmond noted.

UK gambling statutory levy a hoped-for solution

Osmond has welcomed the government’s decision to introduce a statutory levy as part of its Gambling White Paper, which is supposed to come with affordability checks, which will be piloted over a four-stage period, with the first to get underway on August, to be followed by more trials in November, and then January and February 2025.

The resignation of Gambling Minister Stuart Andrew, though, could slow matters down as the post-election dust settles, and the presumptive winner, the Labor Party, settles into the job.

The good news is that much of the ongoing gambling reform in the United Kingdom has already begun and it has been decoupled from the explicit say-so of government figureheads, leaving the bulk with the UK Gambling Commission.

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