GambleAware Publishes the Details on Donations from Operators, Sharing Great News

The UK gambling industry sure knows how to play it safe. After the GambleAware published the poor donations that didn’t meet its funding target for the 12-month period that ended on 31^st of March 2019, the industry managed to collect a staggering sum for a period of 6 months.

As the charity explains, they ask gambling companies to donate 0.1% of their GGY (Gross Gambling Yield). Those companies that have a gross gambling revenue of less than £250,000 need to donate £250.

Gambling Companies Donate a Total of £5.4 Million to GambleAware

GambleAware announced at the beginning of this year that the gambling industry had failed to meet the target donations. And now, for the Q1 and Q2, the industry has managed to surprise us all. In just six months, GambleAware managed to collect £5.4 million in pledges and donations from the industry.

During the period between April and September, GVC successfully donated £1.46 million, getting on top of the list of donors. GVC vowed to donate its sponsorship assets to the charity in August, so probably it is delivering on that promise. The next one on the list is William Hill, donating £1 million. Bet365 wasn’t far behind, with £868,000 donated for the six-month period.

One part of the money from the pledges was paid by LeoVegas. The company had to give GambleAware £600,000 as a regulatory settlement imposed by the UK Gambling Commission for failings related to misleading advertising. Another part of the money was paid by Gamesys, for its money laundering regulation breach. The company had to pay £690,000 to the charity, in lieu of a financial penalty. In total, GambleAware received £1.29 million in pledges.

As always, the charity will use the money to fund treatment, prevention and research on gambling across the UK.

Additional Donations

GambleAware noted that the donations and pledges published were received up to 30th of September. This means that all those that have donated after that date were to be published in the next update in January 2020.

The charity also mentioned that the donations published are the ones paid directly to GambleAware, so no money that has been given to other RET organizations or initiatives is reflected in the report.

The additional donations given by 6 gambling companies, NetEnt, Gamesys, William Hill, The Ritz Club London, the Ritz Hotel Casino and One Click Limited derived from unclaimed winnings, dormant accounts or similar things. The charity admitted that these kinds of donations were seldom given by operators often.

On the other hand, there were again companies who didn’t bother to contribute to the charity at all, or who paid as little as £20, which tells us that some gambling companies still needed to learn how to behave. The thing is, the charity gathers these donations to fund better education, treatment and prevention measures for problem gambling, so rather just offering to gamble, these companies need to learn that they also need to help gamblers overcome their addiction. Pity £20 donations will help no one.