GambleAware has recently published its industry donation figures covering the period from 1 April to 30 December 30, 2020.
In its report, the charity has revealed that William Hill has already donated over half of its 2020/21 £1.04m pledge to the charity over the first three quarters of 2020. GambleAware’s report shows that William hill is the top donor among gambling operators in the UK as it has donated £540,000 out of its £1.04m pledge with Flutter Entertainment coming in second with its £874,000 pledge.
All UK license holders are required to donate 0.1 per cent of their annual gross gambling yields to the charity. Those operators with annual gross gaming revenue of less than £ 250,000 a year are obliged to donate a minimum of £250.
GambleAware has collected a total of £4.46m in charitable donations from the gaming sector for the Q1-Q3 trading period as a whole, a sum that does not include regulatory settlements nor other donations.
Other leading gambling operators who have donated large sums to the charity include Bet365 at £763,000, Gamesys at £450,000 and Petfre (Gibraltar), Betfred’s owner-at £ 75,421.
The charity’s numbers also revealed that it has received additional donations in from operators in the from unclaimed winnings and credit from dormant accounts. The charity’s two largest donors in this type of donations are LeoVegas at £94,328, and A&S Leisure Group, owner of Napoleons Casinos, at £10,000.
GambleAware also revealed that 20 separate operators, B2B supplier, and media firms have raised a total of £5.03m in charitable donations. Betting operators, such as Entain, Flutter, the Stars Collective and William Hill, raised £3.94 million, while mass media firms, led by Sky, ITV and Facebook, raised £ 1.08 million.
GambleAware has also received £8.8m in regulatory settlements from William Hill and Betway during the period from April to December.
As part of GambleAware’s focused inquiry into online casinos, William Hill’s Mr Green division was penalized, with the commission imposing a £3m settlement because the operator was deemed to have failed to provide adequate policies aimed at stopping damage and money laundering. Betway was also forced to pay £5.8 million ahead of a financial settlement of £11.6m as it had failed to follow guidelines regarding VIP customers.
Regulatory settlements are resolutions between GambleAware and operators in cases where operators fail to meet GambleAware’s regulatory standards. The operator and GambleAware agree on a course of action where a financial penalty and direct actions are imposed on the operator to address gambling-related faults. The money paid to GambeAware is used to aid it in its performance of its national strategy on top of ordinary funding.
On other news, GambleAware has recently appointed a new chief executive to head the firm. Last 14 January, the charity has announced that Zoë Osmond will be replacing Marc Etches as the charity’s new Chief Executive. Osmond will take over after Etches’ term by the end of March 2021.
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