GambleAware donations were up 80% for the year ending 31 March 2021.
According to its latest report, the gambling-related harm charity GambleAware received £19m in voluntary donations for the 2020-2021 year.
The latest figure was up 80.9% on the £10.05m GambleAware received during the 2019-2020 financial year.
GambleAware’s donations
The increase in donations can be attributed to an increase in donations from the UK’s four largest operators, Flutter, Entain, Bet365, and William Hill, which pledged to donate a total of £100m to improving gambling treatment services by the end of 2023.
Flutter Entertainment donated £9.3m to the charity during the 2020-2021 year making it GambleAware’s highest donor this time round.
Entain, the operator formerly known as GVC Holdings, donated £4.3m to the charity marking a 200% year-on-year increase in donations to GambleAware.
William Hill was the third-highest donor with £1m while Bet365 followed with £763,000 in donations. In total, the four operators donated £15.4m in total to GambleAware.
The £15.4m donated by the operators surpassed the total predicated former chief executive Mark Etches when he wrote to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Gambling-related Harms in January.
Zoë Osmond, CEO of GambleAware said: “This growth in donations is the largest we’ve seen year on year driven largely as a result of the commitment by the “Big Four”. This will enable us to continue and expand our work to ensure evidence-informed services are developed according to need within a robust and accountable system.”
Other donations
When it comes to donations from other businesses in the gambling space, GambleAware received £50,000 from Playtech. This was the largest donation from a software supplier for the year.
The charity received donations from just under 700 businesses which each donated at least £250. This is the minimum amount that must be donated to GambleAware.
GambleAware also received £8.8m from regulatory settlements. This was made up of a £3m settlement from William Hill after its Mr Green brand breached rules over preventing harm and money laundering last year.
The charity also received a £5.8m settlement paid by Betway following VIP failings.
Osmond added: “We will shortly be releasing our commissioning strategy which will detail how we plan to use this increased funding to help keep people safe from gambling harms.
“It is estimated that two million adults in Great Britain are experiencing some level of gambling harm, and research published this year indicated that more than one in three people with a gambling disorder have not accessed any support or treatment.
“With these donations, we will continue to fund and improve the National Gambling Treatment Service to provide support for those who need it, while working in partnership with many other organisations to increase awareness of support available.”
