In the United Kingdom and the organization behind the BeGambleAware.org responsible gambling resource has called on the government to implement a mandatory 1% levy to help fund programs tasked with combating and treating gambling-related harms.
The London-headquartered GambleAware charity used an official press release to detail that its proposed duty on all domestic gross gambling yield would potentially bring in up to ￡140 million ($176 million) every year to support a wide range of treatment, prevention and research schemes. The organization also requested that a commitment to this levy be made a condition for operators to obtain a local license from the nation’s Gambling Commission regulator.
Evolving environment:
GambleAware declared that its proposition comes as the government of Prime Minister of Boris Johnson is preparing to release a ‘white paper’ of proposed changes to the nation’s online and land-based gambling landscape. This conversation could potentially result in the emergence of stricter affordability checks as well as a prohibition against operators inking shirt sponsorship deals with sporting organizations.
Rational reasoning:
Zoe Osmond (pictured) serves as the Chief Executive Officer for GambleAware and she used the press release to proclaim that her enterprise has called for the new levy in response to the emergence of a ‘perfect storm’ of factors that may well result in ‘an increased risk of people experiencing gambling harms’. The advocate declared that these ingredients include a substantial rise in the cost of living, growing regional inequalities and ‘fallout from the pandemic’ alongside the growing popularity of iGaming.
Read a statement from Osmond…
“The ongoing impacts of the pandemic, a growing cost-
of-living crisis and the shift to online gambling means there is a potential increased risk of people experiencing gambling harms that remains unseen until an individual reaches a crisis point. Without action now, many more people and families could suffer and this is why we are calling on the government to introduce a mandatory 1% gross gambling yield levy on the gambling industry as a licensing condition. This could be delivered in a matter of months and could almost treble the amount of funding going to preventing and treating gambling harms.”
Additional advantages:
GambleAware moreover pronounced that the aggregated gross gambling yield for the British online and land-based gambling industry in pre-pandemic 2019 hit ￡14.1 billion ($17.6 billion) and that the proceeds from its proposed 1% levy could be utilized to ‘provide stability and the best-in-class solutions to prevent gambling harms.’?The organization finished by asserting that this would ‘enable better longer-term planning and commissioning for services’ and help to create a model ‘that prioritizes local action through a national framework’ via the utilization of coalitions of expertise delivering ‘targeted, innovative and effective prevention services that save lives.’