Fearing job losses and a sharp drop in real money funding to fight gambling harms, the charity sector has been left reeling by the government’s new statutory gambling levy on the British betting industry.
For, while most stakeholders in the UK gambling industry greeted the news of the levy positively, because it aims to boost Prevention, Research and Treatment (PRT) of gambling addiction and associated negatives, many in the so-called Third Sector were, paradoxically, left disappointed and fearful for the future of their funding, service provision – and even survival.
We spoke with the founders of charities BetBlocker and Deal Me Out to gauge the full and profound impact of the government levy that aims to raise £100 million a year to fight gambling addiction by imposing statutory contribution rates ranging from 0.1 percent to a maximum 1.1 percent of Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) on different sectors of the gaming industry.
According to the regulatory UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), there are 28 charities listed as voluntary recipients of RET (Research, Education, and Treatment) funding.
Prominent Third Sector charities include GambleAware, Ygam and GamCare.
BetBlocker and Deal Me Out garner less attention but still deliver vital support to problem gamblers.
Pressure
Under the prevailing system most charities collaborated with the gambling industry, using voluntary RET funding to deliver impactful services.
But the transition to a statutory levy–years in the making as part of the Gambling Act Review–has placed unprecedented pressure on many of these organisations.
Charities working in RET have reportedly been strong-armed into cutting ties with their current funding streams to prove their independence from the industry and secure a place in the new system, iGF has learned during the course of its investigation.
Deal Me Out Founder Jordan Lea told iGF that this attack on the system has been ongoing throughout the Gambling Act Review in an effort to pass the new levy.
And he said that it has even been propagated by the NHS, which has now been named as the new Funding Commissioner for Treatment and made responsible for 50 percent of statutory levy funds.
In a widely-reported case the NHS cut ties with GambleAware in 2022 because the charity allegedly had a conflict of interest because it received funding from the gambling industry.
Investigation
In a subsequent UK Charity Commission investigation GambleAware was absolved of any wrong doing.
Nevertheless, Lea asserts that mud sticks and that this confabulation that the Third Sector is fatally compromised because it receives, or has received, funding from the gambling industry has now been “internalised into policy”.
According to Lea (pictured left), charities have been “ostracised” and forced to stop working with gambling brands.
“This moralistic high-horsing prioritises taking a tough line on the [gambling] industry over delivering the best outcomes for the people [gambling addicts and their families] that we should be supporting,” challenges Duncan Garvie, Founder and Trustee of BetBlocker.
Uncertainty throughout the long and complex passage of the Gambling Act Review has had a profound effect on the charitable Third Sector.
The delay to gambling reform has impacted fundraising and led to programme cuts and job losses, say top-level sources.
And in the greatest paradox to date the new mandatory levy may, if anything, undermine and not improve the drive against gambling harms.
Diminished
“The new levy framework puts a question mark on the future funding environment for charities like ourselves,” says gambling addiction charity Gordon Moody.
According to Garvie (pictured right): “Funding insecurity, as we’re currently seeing, is directly impacting the services the third sector delivers today.
“That should never have happened and evidences a poorly coordinated migration from one system to the other.
“The charities that are currently being funded by the RET system have large numbers of people depending on them. When these services are diminished, people that need help are let down.”
The effect of this funding insecurity and the move away from RET funds has been so significant it even warranted the creation of a special Stabilisation Fund to help see the Third Sector through these changes.
But not everybody is following the new orthodoxy.
Determined
Both Deal Me Out and BetBlocker have decided that their future lies outside the “effective nationalisation of the Third Sector”.
And that what matters most is continuing to support gamblers.
They are determined to not compromise service provision for future funding – a sure sign of independence, be it from the government or industry.
And in the biggest rub of all both charities believe that the government target of raising £100 million (US$127.19m/€120.79m) a year through the levy may never be reached at all because a big percentage of the funds will be swallowed by administration and bureaucracy in government bodies, the NHS and local councils.
Lea describes the threat of irrational change as “going back to the Dark Ages”.
Certainly it would seem that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
English