High-Risk Gamblers Need to Be Protected

By John Isaac,
Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac is an editor with many years of experience in the gambling industry. He writes expert articles on card games like blackjack and poker. In addition, he is also well aware of the US gambling laws and the Indian and Dutch gambling markets. You can rely on verified information and insightful details.

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Last updated: May 21, 2022

In the last two years, the gambling industry in the UK has tripled the annual donations they provide to a charity that fights against gambling harm. The reason for this is that they advocate against statements that an annual statutory levy is placed on betting firms.

From the beginning of the year to 31 March 2022, the industry-funded GambleAware received ￡34.7m in donations from more than 680 firms. According to the figures by the charity, the voluntary donations they received the previous year were ￡19m, and ￡10.05m in 2019-2020.

The industry hopes this increase in donations will fend off the calls for a statutory levy. However, some sanctioned betting firms that failed to protect high-risk gamblers were not cooperative. They donated no money to the charity, and even those that did only gave a small amount compared with their revenues in the past financial year.

In December this past year, Genesis Global, a firm based in Malta, was fined ￡3.8m. This is for their social responsibility failings, including letting an NHS nurse use ￡245,000 to gamble in three months.

What Has Been Said?

The co-founder of Gambling with Lives, Liz Ritchie, said, “Gambling companies pay what they want, when they want, and can withdraw funding for health information, research, or treatment they are not happy with.”

Four of the biggest gambling companies, Bet365, William Hill, Flutter, and Entain, already pledged to give 1% of their gross gambling yields. This yield will be from the revenues they retained after payment for winnings. It is also for a 2024 initiative for gambling prevention and treatment. However, the donations by many firms towards this initiative have been limited.

The chief executive of GambleAware, Zoe Osmond, revealed that her firm has frequently asked the government to introduce a mandatory levy. She suggests that a 1% levy of the gross gambling yield on the gambling industry be a condition for a license.

Actions by Authorities to Reduce Gambling Problems

According to The Betting and Gaming Council, the industry’s representative, effective actions are already in place to reduce gambling problems, and an annual statutory level is not needed for it.

Revelations by the Observer also point out that the Treasury was warned about the crackdown by major betting firms. These firms said the calls by campaigners could push gamblers towards the black market more. It is expected that a white paper on gambling reforms will be published by the government soon.

A statement from The Betting and Gaming Council says that the largest members of the industry have pledged more funding. The pledged figure stands at an additional ￡100m, which GambleAware, the independent charity, will administer. The money will go towards education, research, and treatment services.

However, operators don’t need to direct their annual financial contribution to GambleAware alone. They can also give this donation to any of the organizations approved by the Gambling Commission. Added a further blow to GambleAware as the NHS has cut its funding due to what it calls links to the the gambling industry.

In the last few years, the gambling industry in the UK has gone through serious changes and restrictions. The idea behind this is to protect people who are vulnerable to gambling and who are suffering from gambling addiction.