GambleAware Receives £10.6M in Donations for H1

GambleAware, the UK-based independent grant-making charity body dedicated to gambling harm prevention and treatment services, has published information about the total donations and pledges it received for Q1 and Q2 of the financial year 2021-22. For the said period, GambleAware disclosed that it collected a total of £10.6 million (~$14.6 million) donated voluntarily by members of the gambling industry. And for clarification purposes, the monies collected do not include any regulatory settlements from penalties imposed by the regulator or additional donations associated with regulatory misconduct.

According to gaming industry codes of conduct, as outlined by the UK Gambling Commission, GambleAware asks all licensed operators in the UK to make direct donations of at least 0.1% of their annual Gross Gambling Yield (GGY). On the other hand, smaller-sized UK-licensed gambling companies with a yearly GGY of £250,000 (~$344,000) or less are asked to donate at least £250 (~$344) or more.

Moreover, the £10.6 million that GambleAware received from donations includes a higher contribution rate from top UK operators. The said leading gambling companies committed themselves to raising their donations tenfold, from 0.1% of their GGY to 1% by 2023 in annual increments. This year, UK’s leading gambling operators pledged to contribute 0.5% of their yearly GGY.

bet365, Entain and William Hill Lead the Pack in Donations

Of all the operators who donated to Gamble Aware in the first half of the financial year, bet365 donated the most money at £4.2 million (~$5.8 million), which is 39.6% of all the monies pledged. For bet365, this is a significant jump in the volume of its donations to GambleAware, as the company only donated £2.2 million (~$3.1 million) for the entire 2020-21 fiscal year.

Entain followed bet365 with the highest volume of contributions, at £2.0 million (~$2.7 million), an amount that the company had already donated by the end of the first quarter of GambleAware’s 2021-22 fiscal year. For Q2, Entain did not donate any additional amount on top of the £2.0 million. William Hill then rounded up the top-three biggest GambleAware donors with a £1 million (~$1.4 million) pledge for the first half of the 2021-22 financial year.

Besides the top-three largest donors, no other gaming operator parted with a seven-figure donation to GambleAware. Even so, several UK-facing gaming companies donated substantial amounts to the independent grant-making charity body. Unibet (Platinum Gaming) pledged to donate £92,000 (~126,000), whereas Playtech made a £51,768 (~$71,000) contribution pledge for the same period. For the first half of the financial year, other significant donations came from Zecure Gaming and Videoslots, each pledging to donate £50,000 (~$69,000) while White Hat Gaming donated £47,230 (~$64,000).

Meanwhile, companies like Star Racing and Virgin Bet opted for making two smaller-sized contributions at different times of H1 2021-2022. Star Racing started with a £20,720 (~$27,000) pledge and followed it up with a larger £26,069 (~$36,000) donation. On the other hand, Virgin Bet began its donation campaign with a £16,892 (~$23,000) pledge and then topped it up with an additional £17,935 (~24,000). Two more gaming brands, One Click and STS.Bet also donated considerable sums of money, at £22,801 (~$31,000) and £22,000 (~$30,000), respectively, in the first half of GambleAware’s fiscal year.

It’s also worth mentioning that Flutter pledged that it would be donating a combined sum of a whopping £100 million (~$137 million) to the gambling awareness charity by the end of 2023. Overall, the total amount of money pledged for H1 2021-22 was about half of what was donated by gaming companies during the 2019-20 fiscal year that ended March 31st, 2020. For the 2019-20 fiscal year, GambleAware received a total of £19.0 million (~26.2 million) in donations from the gambling sector after Flutter and Entain significantly increased their pledges.

Where Do the GambleAware Donations Go?

The monies that gambling industry companies donate to GambleAware are allocated towards four main objectives that holistically tackle and prevent gambling harm. The four objectives supported by the donations are:

National Gambling Treatment Service: includes safer gambling websites such as begambleaware.org. The National Gambling Helpline and treatment services offered across the United Kingdom are also part of the equation.
Gambling Education Hub: functions to sensitize and educate the youth and the general public about safer gambling. This program has recently been revamped for deeper penetration in England and Wales.
Annual Great Britain Treatment & Support Survey: this includes a range of maps that indicate the reported demand for support and treatment of gambling harms for different demographics across the region.
National prevention and awareness campaigns: such initiatives include campaigns such as Bet Regret and the National Gambling Treatment service campaign meant to prevent gambling harm and raise awareness.

The objectives above are attained by an autonomous system of governance founded on accountability of the process and procedures that it deploys. Further, GambleAware is spearheaded by a Board of trustees that completely independent of the region’s gambling sector. As such, there are assurances in place that guarantee that the gambling sector doesn’t have any influence whatsoever over the commissioning decisions of the charitable institution.