GambleAware, the problem gambling funding body has now revealed that GVC Holdings has topped its list of pledges for the six months to 30 September 2019. Where the Ladbrokes Coral owner committed a total of £1.46m (€1.69m/$1.86m) during the period.
£1m was pledged by William Hill, with Bet365 pledging £868,000. Rank Group-owned Grosvenor Casinos made separate donations from across its online and land-based business amounting to £166,300. In total, with its Mecca Bingo business, Rank donated £284,540 in the first half of the financial year.
Betway committed a total of £153,500 to the organisation in the first half, with Playtech and Praesepe Holdings pledging over £100,000.
The total amount of money which was pledged to and received by GambleAware in voluntary donations during the period came in at £5.4m. The organisation has noted that this figure has not included regulatory settlements and additional donations.
GambleAware currently requests all businesses which profit from gambling in the British market to donate a minimum of 0.1 per cent of their annual gross gambling yield (GGY), which is to go directly to the organisation each year.
If an operator or business has a gross gambling revenue of less than 250,000 per annum, GambleAware has requested that they donate a minimum of £250.
The £1.46m pledge from GVC has matched its total donation for the 2018-19 financial year. William Hill also donated £1m last year.
For the 2018-19 financial year, the total amount of voluntary donations came to a total of £9.6m, which was just short of the £10m that trustees of the problem gambling charity had asked of the market.
However in June, five of the UK’s leading sports betting operators volunteered to increase funding for problem gambling treatment and safer gambling.
William Hill, GVC Holdings, Flutter Entertainment (formerly Paddy Power Betfair), The Stars Group-owned Sky Betting & Gaming and bet365 have also agreed to increase their voluntary contribution from 0.1 per cent to 1 per cent of their gross gaming yields in no more than five years.
