SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
GambleAware has reported a bumper year in voluntary donations, totalling £19 million provided by UK licensed gambling businesses.
Publishing its summary of donations for the 12 months ending 31 March 2021, GambleAware secured a near £9 million increase in voluntary donations provided by UK operators – overall contributions for 2019/2020 reached £10.05 million.
GambleAware attributed the significant rise in funding to the ‘£100 million RET commitment’ pledged by UK gambling’s ‘Big Four’ operators – Entain Plc, William Hill, Flutter Entertainment and bet365.
FTSE100 Flutter Entertainment topped GambleAware’s 2020 donations, providing the charity with £9.3 million in direct donations.
Registering second, Entain Plc provided GambleAware with a total of £4.3 million, as Big Four donations totalled £15.4 million (81% of total funding).
In addition to funding received from voluntary donations, GambleAware secured a further £8.8 million in regulatory settlements.
The donations will fund GambleAware services and projects related to improving research, education and treatment services to help to reduce gambling –including the National Gambling Treatment Service, which includes the National Gambling Helpline.
Zoë Osmond, CEO of GambleAware, said: “This growth in donations is the largest we’ve seen year on year driven largely as a result of the commitment by the ‘Big Four.
“This will enable us to continue and expand our work to ensure evidence-informed services are developed according to need within a robust and accountable system. We will shortly be releasing our commissioning strategy which will detail how we plan to use this increased funding to help keep people safe from gambling harms.”
UK gambling licensing requirements stipulate that all licensed businesses should contribute 0.1% of their annual Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) directly to GambleAware.
Companies with an annual gross gambling revenue of less than £250,000 per annum, are requested to donate a minimum of £250 to support the problem gambling treatment support charity.
