In the past nine months, British gaming companies have donated a total of around £ 4.46 million to BeGambleAware. That comes from a donation list that was published on the BeGambleAware website.
The list of donations this year is headed by the operator of Betfair and Paddy Power, Flutter Entertainment plc. This gambling group alone is said to have donated an amount of GBP 874,000 in the current financial year, which will not end until March 31st, in favor of the British gambling addiction aid.
By the time the financial year ends at the end of March, however, the tide could turn again. The competitor William Hill has only donated 540,000 GBP so far. Several months ago, however, they agreed to donate a total of over one million GBP in this financial year.
BeGambleAware is an organization that combats and prevents gambling addiction. Players can turn to the British organization if they find their gambling behavior problematic and want professional help. There is even a free service hotline which can be reached free of charge around the clock on 0808 8020 133 (only for players from Great Britain).
Another major donor of the gambling addiction aid is the traditional British company bet365. Those responsible donated a total of GBP 763,000 to BeGambleAware in the current financial year. If you look a little further down the list of donations, you will find the software company Gamesys Limited with a donation of 450,000 GBP and the British gaming giant Betway, which has so far donated 134,000 GBP, in fourth place.
In total, BeGambleAware generated donations of almost GBP 4.5 million between the beginning of April and the end of December. Converted according to the current exchange rate, that’s almost five million euros. What at first glance sounds like generous donations on the part of the online gaming industry are, for some gaming companies, more of a peanuts.
In principle, BeGambleAware expects that every British gaming company that makes a profit from gaming donates a share of 0.1% of its gross annual turnover to the organization.
However, the British Gaming Authority (UKGC) requires its licensees to pay precisely this share of sales to any gambling addiction organization. However, companies can freely choose an organization, so that money does not necessarily have to flow to BeGambleAware.
The table above shows that in 2020, for example, Flutter Entertainment plc donated an amount of GBP 874,000 to BeGambleAware, with an annual turnover of around GBP 2.14 billion. That is not even the equivalent of 0.05% of the total turnover that the gambling company donates to the gambling addiction aid. It must be mentioned, however, that Flutter Entertainment is also involved elsewhere in order to support other projects financially.
The fact is, however, that there should definitely still be room for improvement in terms of donations. Of course, this does not only apply to Flutter Entertainment, but also to all other “top donors”. After all, gambling addiction is also a big problem in the UK.
More than a year ago, several leading gaming companies announced that they wanted to significantly increase donations by 2023. Specifically, they want to increase the share of donations in total sales (GGR) to 1% by then. At least that’s what Entain, Flutter Entertainment, Sky Bet, bet365 and William Hill announced. That could at least be the first step in order to be able to support the game addiction help even better in the future.
