GambleAware annual fundraising letter confirms no change to minimum donation guideline

One of the principal questions arising from publication last month of the Gambling Commission’s new National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms is “who will pay for all that is sought to be achieved?”, as David Clifton discusses in his current Licensing Expert article for SBC News.

GambleAware has just launched its annual fundraising drive by writing a letter to the industry (that can be downloaded below) in which it confirms that its guideline for gambling industry donations for the current year will remain a minimum of 0.1% of annual GGY. The relevant part of the letter reads as follows:

Meeting our existing commitments will require a minimum of £10 million in the next 12 months. However, we anticipate that our response to the National Strategy will require a significant step-up in funding from April 2020.

We respect the voluntary nature of the current funding arrangements, and we do not expect to monopolise available funding. However, we do believe that funding the National Gambling Treatment Service and the associated prevention activity, with research that underpins this work, lies at the heart of effectively reducing gambling harms across Great Britain. A coherent, co-ordinated and efficient system of prevention and treatment requires strategic commissioning, and this is our primary role.

Our guideline for donations for this year remains a minimum of 0.1% of annual Gross Gambling Yield (GGY), and we ask that all those who profit from gambling in Great Britain to kindly support us as generously as possible.

The letter goes on to confirm that the funding of its recently launched national Safer Gambling “Bet Regret” campaign has not been drawn from the voluntary RET (research, education and treatment) donation-based system underpinned by the Gambling Commission’s Social Responsible Code Provisions but is instead subject to a separate commitment to Government by the gambling and broadcasting industries.