Industry donates £4.5m to GambleAware in first three quarters of FY2021

Flutter Entertainment topped the list of donations after handing over £874,000 to the charity in the nine months to 31 December 2020.

Bet365 followed with £763,000, then William Hill on £540,000, though the latter has pledged to donate a total of £1.0m during the 2020-21 financial year, more than any other operator.

Gamesys donated £450,000 in the nine-month period, while Betway gave the charity £134,000 in funds and 888 Holdings £50,000.

Other stand-out contributors included entertainment arcade operator Praesepe Holdings, which donated £28,000 but has pledged some £85,500, while Petfre Gibraltar, the igaming subsidiary of BetFred, made three separate donations of £40,364, £35,057 and £26,783.

Casumo also made separate donations of £27,446 and £16,170, while Blueprint made four payments across its subsidiaries of £23,000, £19,000, £18,000 and £1,500.

In terms of other funds received, GambleAware said it was given additional funds from regulatory settlements agreed between the industry and the Gambling Commission. This included £3m from William Hill as a result of its settlement with the GB Gambling Commission regarding harm prevention and money laundering failures with Mr Green.

A further £5.8m came courtesy of the Commission’s ruling against Betway in March, when the operator agreed to pay a total settlement of £11.6m after it was found to have breached a number of social responsibility and money laundering regulations related to high-spending customers.

Aside from this, GambleAware drew more funding from other resources such as operators paying money from dormant accounts and unclaimed winnings. This included £94,328 from LeoVegas and £10,000 from A&S Leisure Group.

Meanwhile, GambleAware has released information about support for its Safer Gambling Campaign, revealing it received £3.9m in donations from operators in 2020, as well as £1.1m from broadcasters.

Flutter also led the list of gambling operator donations here with £683,847 in funds, followed by Entain – previously GVC Holdings – on £643,847. Bet635 donated £580,898, Stars Group £565,000, William Hill £410,000, Gamesys £312,509 and Camelot £246,063.

Other operator donations included BetVictor on £149,971, Kindred Group with £98,927, Betway on £93,750, LeoVegas at £57,768, Betsson with £57,033 and Rank Group on £45,000.

In terms of broadcasters, Sky led the way with £629,479 in funding, ahead of ITV with £247,350, Facebook on £180,329, Twitter at £15,392 and YouTube with £15,000.

The campaign launched as a two-year initiative, with the aim of running throughout 2019-20 and 2020-21 to raise public awareness of the risks associated with gambling.

The project had a budget of between £5m and £7m a year, with GambleAware, which ran the campaign independently, asking the top 20 operators in Britain to make a donation based on a percentage of their GB marketing spend.

Earlier today (12 January), GambleAware also announced the launch of the latest phase of its campaign to promote awareness of the National Gambling Treatment Service.