SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
GambleAware has collected £10.6 million in industry donations and safer gambling pledges, taken in during the first half of the year.
Publishing its first-half 2021 donations, received between April and September, GambleAware disclosed bet365 as its top patron donating a combined £4.2 million.
bet365 is followed by Entain Plc and William Hill providing respective £2-and-£1 million in donations as GambleAware’s top three donors accounted for 90% of contributions totalling £8 million.
GambleAware’s H1 Safer Gambling RET pledges totalled £2.6 million, primarily attributed to a further £2 million donation made by Entain Plc.
Further notable RET pledges included a £450,000 payment made by National Lottery operator Camelot UK.
UK licensed operators are asked to voluntarily contribute a minimum of 0.1% of their gross gambling yield (GGY). Operators with an annual gross gambling revenue of less than £250,000 per year are asked to donate a minimum of £250.
Last year, UK gambling’s ‘Big 4’ operators of bet365, Entain, Flutter Entertainment and William Hill pledged to increase their RET commitment to 1% of GGY by 2023, helping GambleAware register record 2020 donations of £19 million.
Operating as the UK’s lead RET grant-making organisation, GambleAware continues its mandate to develop a nationwide whole-system approach to the treatment of gambling harms.
Industry donations to GambleAware will help expand the charity’s headline directives of maintaining the National Gambling Treatment Service, the Gambling Education Hub, Annual Great Britain Treatment & Support Survey and National prevention and awareness campaigns
“GambleAware has a robust, independent and accountable system of governance process and procedures in place.” GambleAware’s statement concluded.
“These assurances are in place to ensure the gambling industry has no influence over the charity’s commissioning decisions.”
