A fish and chip shop sits next to a bookmakers in Blackpool on November 02, 2018 in London, England. … [+]
The U.K. plans to charge its gambling industry around £100m ($126m) a year to fund addiction services.
Although industry donations have been increasing, previous attempts to raise funds voluntarily have garnered less than 10% of this total in recent years.
Under the new rules, which are currently under consultation, online gambling firms would pay 1% of their gambling yield to a public fund. Casinos and other physical gambling locations would pay 0.4% to compensate for their higher operating costs.
This money raised will be split between the country’s public heath system—the National Health Service—and research commissioner UK Research and Innovation. It will also help fund counselling delivered by third sector groups.
Exactly how this money will be spent has not yet been decided. But it’s part of wider plans to expand the country’s publicly-funded gambling addiction services.
The NHS is in the process of nearly doubling the number of specialist gambling addiction clinics it operates across the country from 8 to 15 this year.
NHS mental health director Claire Murdoch said in a statement that record numbers of people were turning to the health service for gambling addiction support.
She added: “The NHS has long called for a statutory levy because it is only right that this billion-pound industry steps up to support people suffering from gambling addiction and I am pleased that action is being taken to prevent people from coming to harm in the first place.”
Previous attempts to get companies to voluntarily pay a gambling levy have garnered much smaller sums. The government says some firms have paid less than £1 “towards research, prevention and treatment.”
As recently as 2019, the industry missed a £10m target for the GambleAware charity, then the government’s recommended recipient.
Large gambling companies have increased the amount donated to the voluntary fund in recent years. Since 2019, big firms pledged an additional £110m ($133.67) in the five years up until 2024, according to industry lobby, the Betting and Gambling Council.
Nonetheless, an annual £100m fund still represents a major increase in industry funding—something ministers and campaigners have been calling for for years.
A white paper published earlier this year recommended making the addiction levy mandatory, alongside other suggestions like stake limits on online bets.
The BGC argues the new scheme should impact the country’s National Lottery, as well as online firms, casinos and betting shops.
It also warns that the scheme could divert funds from charity groups that deal with “problem gambling”, whereby individuals are preoccupied with gambling, or gamble beyond their means, but are not necessarily addicted.
BGC chairman Brigid Simmons said in a statement: “Under the consultation, the vast majority of funding, between 40-60 per cent, will go to the NHS, which is currently treating less problem gamblers than the third sector.
“Meanwhile, 10-20 per cent will go to research and 15-30 per cent on prevention and education.”
But the government says the levy will “ensure all operators contribute their fair share” and mean the industry “will no longer have a say” in how research, prevention and treatment funding is spent.
Campaigners have welcomed the move. Strategy director Will Prochaska from charity Gambling with Lives, which helps families affected by gambling-related suicide, called the mandatory levy “a significant step forward” that should implemented as soon as possible.
Many charities that “refuse to take funds under industry-focused structures” will not survive if the scheme is delayed.
The country’s National Clinical Advisor for Gambling Harms, Henrietta Bowden-Jones, said the levy “reflects the government’s decision to fund gambling treatment, prevention, research and education in an independent and evidence-based way.”
Professor Bowden-Jones, who is also vice-president of the Royal Society of Medicine, said the mandatory levy will allow “us to continue our work of eradicating all gambling harms from society.”
