Statutory levy announced by the Government

This morning, the Government mandated a statutory levy to tackle gambling-related harm.

The levy, which was first proposed by the Conservative Government last year, will be imposed on gambling industry profits to pay for independent treatment, prevention and research to tackle gambling harm. It should yield over £100m every year. When GwL was first founded the voluntary contributions paid by the industry were less than £10m a year.

Important details about how the “prevention pot” of money will be administered still need to be announced—we will keep pushing to ensure parliamentary and public accountability. But this is a big step forward, and it is something bereaved families, along with many other campaigners, politicians, and healthcare professionals, have called for many years.

Independent treatment, prevention and research will save lives. However, there is still much work to do on making products less addictive, cutting advertising and marketing, and ensuring that operators have meaningful interventions with customers who are being harmed to tackle gambling harm and reduce the deaths.

Gambling with Lives co-founders Liz and Charles Ritchie were on BBC Breakfast this morning, reacting to the announcement and highlighting the Betting and Gaming Council’s refusal to use the official statistics that show much higher levels of harm. You can watch some highlights here and here, or the whole segment above.

Liz said: “Families bereaved by gambling suicide have been campaigning for a statutory gambling levy for seven long years. This is a good step forward from the new Government and we welcome the principle of a statutory gambling levy but crucial details are yet to come.” 

“Research shows that 2.5% of the UK population need NHS treatment for mental health harm caused by gambling and nearly half of them are at high risk of suicidal behaviour.”

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