UK Charities Commission opens compliance case over YGAM/BGC links

While the Charities Commission did not reveal specifics of the links it was looking into, in May 2020, the BGC rolled out a £10m (€11.3m/$12.2m) responsible gambling education programme that was delivered by YGAM, as part of its safer gambling commitments.

“We have opened a regulatory compliance case to assess the matter and are currently engaging with the trustees,” the Commission said.

The Commission also emphasised that the case is not considered by the charity regulator to be an investigation. Rather, regulatory compliance cases are used in order to establish facts about an issue. 

As a result, it stressed, existence of the case itself does not necessarily mean that wrongdoing has occurred.

YGAM also pointed out that the case was a query rather than a direct investigation.

“Our board of trustees have answered a query from the Charity Commission with full confidence and transparency,” YGAM said. “It has provided an opportunity to evidence our independence, governance controls and approach to evaluation.

“We are incredibly proud of our dedicated team and the work they do to deliver our award-winning resources through the Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme.”

A BGC spokesperson said it was proud to work alongside YGAM and said its education programme had been a major success in its first year.

“The BGC is proud to support the superb work being done by YGAM and GamCare through the Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme, which in its first year exceeded its targets for providing education for young people and training for those who work with them.”