SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Gambling harm prevention charity GambleAware has reported around £300k in Research, Prevention and Treatment (RET) donations received between April and June (Q1).
With the exact total standing at £294,722.99, the contributions list generally follows a rule of thumb where GambleAware receives a relatively small proportion of donations in Q1, gradually leading up to a greater proportion in Q4 (January-March).
The biggest RET donation was made by Skill on Net Ltd – a total of £40,000 – followed by Star Racing Ltd with £27,547.37 and ProgressPlay Ltd with £24,346.
The least amount was donated by GameBeat Studio with £7, while Angus Wallace (trading as Gus Bookmakers) made a total of £10 in Q1 contributions.
It is expected that the 2024/25 fiscal year will be the last year in which operators make their donations directly to the charities listed on the UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) LCCP registry of approved organisations.
The change precedes the introduction of a statutory levy that will see all RET donations collected by the Gambling Commission and distributed in line with the government’s strategy.
UKGC data for the period between April 2023 and March 2024 shows that GambleAware was the charity that received the most RET contributions from operators standing at £50m, followed by GamCare with £2.9m.
Zoe Osmond, Gamble Aware CEO, commented: “This is anticipated to be the final year of the voluntary donation system, before moving on to a system with a statutory levy.
“As we transition to the new system it is essential that funding is maintained at the same level as previous years to ensure there is no disruption to prevention and treatment services for gambling harm.”
