GambleAware £16m industry donations list led by bet365

GambleAware has published the list of operators which made financial contributions to the responsible gambling charity during the first three quarters of the 2021/22 fiscal year. 

A total of £16 million was donated to the organisation by UK betting operators, which are requested to contribute 0.1% of their gross gaming yield to the group.

Overall, bet365 led the donations list at £4.2 million, followed closely by Entain at £4 million and William Hill at £1 million – this falls in line with a pledge made by the ‘leading operators’ in the UK to increase the amount of their GGY given to GambleAware to 1%.

This mirrors the charity’s H1 donation update from last year, in which bet365 also paid out $4.2 million, followed by Entain and William Hill at £2 miln and £1 million, with the three operators’ donations accounting for 90% of contributions. 

In the latest update, other significant contributors included were Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited (£93,714), Unibet UK (£92,000), TSG Interactive Services (£80,000), Betway (£60,200), Playtech (£51,768), Videoslots (£50,000), White Hat Gaming (££47,230), Broadway Gaming (£30,000), Star Racing (£26,069.00), 32Red Ltd (£28,000) and Gamesys (£22,998). 

“GambleAware continues to call for a mandatory levy to address gambling harms and ensure transparency and consistency across the industry,” GambleAware detailed. 

“Having such a system in place would provide the sustainable funding which is vital for the delivery of research, treatment and prevention.”

GambleAware uses the funding from operators to support its four key commissioning objectives of raising awareness, countering inequalities, boosting service capacity and providing access to support.

Funding is also directed towards financing the National Gambling Treatment Service (NGTS), the Annual Treatment and Support Survey and Gambling Education Hubs, as well as ‘40 workstreams of work’ against the aforementioned commissioning objectives. 

In its update on first-three-quarter fiscal year donors, GambleAware reiterated its calls for a mandatory levy to address gambling harms and strengthen cross-industry transparency and consistency. 

“Having such a system in place would provide the sustainable funding which is vital for the delivery of research, treatment and prevention,” GambleAware detailed. 

Zoe Osmund, GambleAware CEO, made the charity’s position on the matter clear following the announcement earlier this year that the NHS would cease accepting funding from gambling organisations. 

Asserting that a levy would ensure all firms were ‘held accountable’, the CEO argued that the system would guarantee greater transparency on the industry’s commitment to problem gambling research, education and treatment (RET) programmes.