The UK’s Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) members donated a record £172.5m ($223m) over the past four years to gambling harm reduction programs. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), the industry association for the UK’s biggest gambling operators, has published new figures which show that members contributed a record £172.5m ($223m) over the past four years for the period ending March 2024 to help prevent gambling-related harm.

The uptick came after the largest operators in the BGC committed to making much more significant donations to GambleAware. Of the £172.5m ($223m) total, £122.5m ($158m) went directly to the independent charity from Evoke, bet365, Entain, and Flutter, with an additional £10m ($13m) going to the Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme. Another £40m ($52m) came from smaller BGC members and other UK Gambling Commission licensees.

proposed a mandatory levy on all operators rather than continuing with the current voluntary model

The UK government’s white paper on gambling legislation published in April 2023 proposed a mandatory levy on all operators rather than continuing with the current voluntary model. The BGC agrees with this move once it is tiered in a way that doesn’t harm brick-and-mortar venues, protects the long-running recipients of funding, and is administered independently.