GambleAware publishes list of annual donations for 2021-2022

• Leading “Big Four” operators responsible for 89% of donations, following their previous commitment to increase their donation to 1% GGY by 2024.
• The total donated across the industry remains higher than previous years, however, there remains an inconsistency in donations from other operators.  
• GambleAware continues to call for mandatory levy on Gross Gambling Yield to provide a more consistent and sustainable funding model to support the prevention of gambling harms.   

London, 6 May 2022: GambleAware has today published details of donations for the 12 months ending 31 March 2022. The total for voluntary donations from the gambling industry is £34.7 million.

The leading “Big Four” operators are responsible for donating 89% (£30.9 million) of the total donations for the year. This is reflective of their previous commitment to raise the percentage of GGY they donate from 0.1% in increments to 1% by 2023/2024.

Although the total figure donated across the industry equates to nearly £15 million more than the donations received in 2020/21, it remains significantly short of the estimated amount a mandatory levy would raise. This reflects the uncertain and inconsistent approach to the funding of treatment, prevention, and research of gambling harms across the industry. GambleAware is calling for a funding model which is no longer voluntary, but instead mandatory, to provide stable funding and best-in-class solutions to prevent gambling harms. Such a funding model would enable better longer-term planning and commissioning for services to prevent gambling harms.

Zoë Osmond, CEO of GambleAware said:

“These donations fund essential services for the prevention of gambling harms, helping build a coalition of expertise to tackle and prevent gambling harms across Great Britain. We welcome the commitment from the “Big Four” operators to increase their donations over the coming years, however, there remains an inconsistent approach to funding across the wider gambling industry, which leads to uncertainty and instability.

“That’s why we are calling on the Government to introduce a mandatory levy on the gambling industry as a condition of licence. The gambling industry should take the necessary and responsible steps by matching its success to the scale of gambling harms risk, especially at a time of rising financial and economic hardship across the country. This would commit much more funding to treatment, prevention, and research per year – and could be delivered in a matter of months.”

The full list of organisations and the amount donated is available to view in full here.

-ENDS-

Contact:

+447523 609413

gambleaware@atlas-partners.co.uk

About GambleAware

• GambleAware is the leading charity (Charity No. England & Wales 1093910, Scotland SC049433) commissioning the transformation of treatment and prevention services, leading public health campaigns and keeping people safe from gambling harms.
• Up to 2.9 million people in Great Britain are at risk of harm from gambling. Gambling can harm people and their families financially, psychologically and physically. GambleAware works in close collaboration with leading organisations and experts including the NHS, government, local authorities and gambling treatment providers, to ensure that people get the information, support and treatment they need.
• Every year GambleAware funds access to free, confidential treatment for nearly 12,000 people and over 41,000 calls to the National Gambling Helpline.
• GambleAware is a commissioner of independent evidence-informed prevention and treatment services in partnership with expert organisations and agencies across Great Britain, with over £56 million of funding under active management.
• In partnership with gambling treatment providers, GambleAware has spent several years methodically building structures for commissioning a coherent system of brief intervention and treatment services, with clearly defined care pathways and established referral routes to and from the NHS – a National Gambling Treatment Service.
• The National Gambling Treatment Service brings together a National Gambling Helpline and a network of locally-based providers across Great Britain that works with partner agencies and people with lived experience to design and deliver a system, which meets the needs of individuals. This system delivers a range of treatment services, including brief intervention, counselling (delivered either face-to-face or online), residential programmes and psychiatrist led care.
• In April 2021 GambleAware published a new five-year strategy which defined the charity’s vision of a society where people are safe from gambling harms. This vision is based on a whole-system approach, which acknowledges the many other organisations, networks and individuals, including those who have lived experience of gambling harms, that already play a key role across the system, or have the potential to do so in the future. Alongside this, GambleAware outlined its four key strategic priorities and four commissioning objectives which will help guide the charity as it strives to achieve its vision.
• GambleAware produces public health campaigns including ‘Bet Regret’ and its Women’s Gambling Harm Prevention campaign. The charity is responsible for the design and delivery of the campaign based on best practice in public health education. See: www.gambleaware.org/for-professionals/safer-gambling-campaign and https://www.gambleaware.org/advice-tools-support.