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GambleAware Receives £2.3m From Donations in H1
By Jeff Osienya Oct 20, 2020 IndustryGambleAware releases a report revealing that license holders in the UK donated a total of £2.3 million in the first six months of its fiscal year. The charity body also received £8.8 million from settlements levied to regulatory offenders in H1.GambleAware, UK’s self-regulating grant-making charity organization for the gambling industry disclosed that for the first half of the 2020/21 fiscal year – from 1st April to 30th September, it received £2.3 million ($3.0m/€2.5) from donations and pledges from licensed operators in Great Britain. According to the recently published report, the leading charity body however clarified that the figure wasn’t inclusive of regulatory settlements, which on their own came to a total of £8.8 million.
Per the licensing requirements in the UK’s gambling industry, all license holders must donate a 0.1% equivalent of their annual GGR (Gross Gambling Yield) directly to the GambleAware charity. Additionally, licensed parties with a yearly GGR or less than £250K are required to contribute at least £250 to the charity organization.
The funds that GambleAware receives are in turn used to boost development initiatives in the industry, including awareness, prevention, and treatment of problem gambling. The list of donors who contribute to the charity is made up of operators and suppliers licensed in Great Britain, and on top of the GGR share donations, the contributors also donate other funds such as unclaimed winnings and balances from dormant accounts.
Biggest Industry Donors to GambleAware
From the long list of donors on GambleAware’s report, Gamesys, one of the leading online gaming operators in the UK market contributed a total of £450,000 to top the list of the biggest license holding benefactors. Betway, another household name in Great Britain’s gambling sector followed with a £134,00 donation, and Betfred’s parent company Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited completed the top three with a £61,840 donation to GambleAware.
888 Holdings, which is also a dominant operator in the UK was also part of the list of operators that contributed the most money, having donated £50,000 in Q1 and Q2 of the charity’s financial year. Other significant donations to the £2.3 million kitty came from popular gaming companies such as Apricot Investments (Microgaming’s parent company), Videoslots, Praesepe Holdings, Casumo, and Inspired Group Gaming which contributed £40,000, £30,000, £28,000, £27,446, and £25,000 respectively.
Pledges and Regulatory Settlements
In the first six months of GambleAware’s fiscal year, the charity also collected notable pledges from William Hill which promised to give £1.04 million, whereas Praesepe Holdings committed to donating £85,500 on top of the 0.1% of the GGR compulsory contribution.
For H1 2020 UK’s leading charity also received substantial funding from regulatory settlements. Mr. Green, one of the subsidiaries of the William Hill brand parted with a £3 million penalty after an investigation by the Gambling Commission determined that the company failed to do enough to prevent harm and abide by anti-money laundering policies. Betway on the other hand was slapped with a £5.8 million fine, an amount which will be channeled to the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms, as part of the larger £11.6 million settlement that was agreed upon after the company was found guilty of “inadequate management” oversight in March.
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