Flutter leads GambleAware 2021-22 donations

The total excludes regulatory settlements and additional donations and was also 82.6% more than the total amount donated in 2020-21.

Gaming giant Flutter donated the highest amount of all operators at £14m.

This was made up of £6.1m in donations from Sky Betting and Gaming, £6m from Betfair, £680,000 from Stars Interactive, £663,599 from Tombola and £537,000 from Paddy Power.

The next-highest yearly donations came from Entain, at £8.7m.

Just behind this was William Hill, which donated £4.5m.

Bet365 contributed £4.2m throughout the year. This was made up of £2.6m from its UK sports division, £923,000 from its technology division and £601,000 from its UK gaming division.

These operators – comfortably the four largest in the UK – donated £30.9m of the total for the year. This is 89%.

In the final quarter of the year, operators gave more than double the £16.0m donated in the first three quarters of the fiscal year.

“These donations fund essential services for the prevention of gambling harms, helping build a coalition of expertise to tackle and prevent gambling harms across Great Britain,” said Zoë Osmond, CEO of GambleAware. “We welcome the commitment from the “big four” operators to increase their donations over the coming years, however, there remains an inconsistent approach to funding across the wider gambling industry, which leads to uncertainty and instability.

“That’s why we are calling on the government to introduce a mandatory levy on the gambling industry as a condition of licence.”

Last month GambleAware reiterated its support for a mandatory 1% gross gaming yield levy for gambling operators in the UK, amid a number of socioeconomic issues.

“The gambling industry should take the necessary and responsible steps by matching its success to the scale of gambling harms risk, especially at a time of rising financial and economic hardship across the country,” continued Osmond.

“This would commit much more funding to treatment, prevention, and research per year – and could be delivered in a matter of months.”