Inverclyde Member of Parliament Ronnie Cowan has addressed the largest bookmakers in the UK and challenged them to provide more support to gambling addiction services through contributions from their profits.
In a letter to William Hill, bet365, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes and BetFred, MP Cowan states that each one of these five companies is responsible to make sure that their customers are protected against gambling-related harm so they have to guarantee that such negative consequences are minimised. The Scottish politician’s initiative comes after revelations that the voluntary scheme, under which gambling operators have to give a share of their revenue to fund gambling addiction services, was not actually working.
According to reports, the largest gambling charity in the UK – GambleAware – managed to collect only £9.6 million as contributions from the industry, falling about £400,000 short of its £10-million objective. It became clear that despite generating massive revenues from their operations, gambling companies spared only a tiny part of it.
In his letter to the five above-mentioned companies, Inverclyde MP Cowan reminded that two National Problem Gambling Clinics have already been established in England by GambleAware and shared that he would be glad if he saw a similar clinic created in Scotland.
At the time when the industry was deregulated in 2005, betting companies agreed to make voluntary contributions amounting to 0.1% of their revenues to the charity which is aimed at research, education and treatment of gambling addiction in the UK. Recently, it has become clear that despite the massive gambling revenues, betting operators spared only a small portion for problem gambling funding.
British Bookmakers Make Too Small Donations to GambleAware, Cowan Says
According to reports, GVC Holdings which is currently the owner of Ladbrokes Coral generated a £3-billion revenue and paid £1.45 million as a contribution to the charity. Despite its turnover amounting to £2.86 billion, gambling giant bet365 donated to GambleAware only £868,000.
Paddy Power Betfair made a contribution worth £445,000 after generating revenues of £1.74 billion in 2017. The donation made by William Hill to GambleAware amounted to £1 million after the company made revenues of £1.6 billion. At the time when representatives of a local media contacted the companies, they insisted they had met the charity obligations in accordance with their UK revenues.
The Scottish Member of Parliament now hopes to raise the issue of a mandatory levy on gambling companies’ profits in parliament by the end of the week.
MP Cowan, who is also a vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group focused on dealing with gambling-related harm, is also known for previously insisting on stricter regulation for fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). At the beginning of April 2019, the UK Government finally rolled out the tougher rules regarding the controversial machines, slashing their maximum stake from £100 to £2 as part of its attempts to tackle problem gambling rates.
- Author
Daniel Williams
