GambleAware has published details of its donations for the 12 months ending 31 March 2020.
GambleAware, the UK gambling industry’s charity, has announced its list of donors for the year ending 31 March 2020, with GVC donating the most money.
A total of 956 organisations which were mostly gambling companies made voluntary donations worth a combined £10.1m. With these donations, GambleAware managed to exceed its target of £10m in donations after failing to hit the target in 2019.
Breaking down the figures
Looking closer at the donations, the operator of Ladbrokes Coral donated £1.46m to GambleAware making it the charity’s largest contributor for the year. Flutter Entertainment and William Hill were the next highest donors after each donating a total of £1m.
The sports betting giant Bet365 followed closely behind with a donation of £865,000. Sky Betting and Gaming made a donation of £705,000 whiles its parent company The Stars Group donated £125,000.
Gamesys made the fifth-largest donation with £426,000, followed by Betway’s donation of £153,000 and Genisis Global donating £145,000.
Playtech made a donation of £150,000, the largest donation among suppliers in the gambling space. SG Gaming’s The Global Draw brand made a donation of £85,714.
The charity also asks all UK businesses who profit from gambling operations to donate at least 0.1% of gross gambling yield, or if their gross gambling yield is lower than £250,000, to donate at least £250.
GambleAware also received £1.4m in donations through three regulatory settlements agreed by the Gambling Commission and operators. Gamesys paid a settlement of £690,00 after it failed to prevent gambling-related harm and breached UK money laundering regulations.
LeoVegas also paid a £600,000 settlement over misleading advertising and the handling of customers in 2018. Playtech also paid a settlement of £155,000 to GambleAware.
Marc Etches, CEO of GambleAware, said: “For the tenth year in a row, we have seen an increase in donations, which means for the first time, we have been able to meet our minimum target of £10 million. Commissioning a coherent, co-ordinated and efficient system of prevention and treatment requires the strategic distribution of sufficient funding, guided by appropriate expertise underpinned by effective partnership working.
“GambleAware is currently the primary commissioner using best-practice to ensure that evidence-informed services are developed according to need within a robust and accountable system, and that funding is allocated efficiently and independently as one would expect of other health and social care commissioning and grant-making bodies.”
Responsible gambling in the UK
This news comes as the UK gambling industry has placed a stronger emphasis on responsible gambling in the country.
Earlier this month, the Gambling Commission revealed the details of Matchbook operator Triplebet’s licence suspension, highlighting several serious regulatory failings. in the areas of anti-money laundering (AML), social responsibility and due diligence check into syndicates.
Last month, the Commission fined Betway a record £11.6m for a series of social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failings linked to dealings with seven of the operator’s ‘VIP’ customers.
