.svg)
The UK government has opened its consultation on a new statutory levy to fund problem gambling research and treatment, as announced in April's white paper on gambling reforms, with online operators expected to fund the levy at more than double the rate of land-based licensees.
As outlined in the consultation published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) on Tuesday (October 17), the levy would come into effect for the 2026/2027 fiscal year and be applied on licensees reporting a gross gambling yield or profit of more than £500,000.
Online gambling operators, remote software licensees, remote machine technical licensees and remote pool betting licensees would be required to pay the levy at a rate of 1 percent of their gross gambling yield.
For land-based casinos, non-remote software licensees, non-remote machine technical licensees and non-remote pool betting licensees, the levy would be set at 0.4 percent. For land-based arcades and bingo and society lotteries, a 0.1 percent rate would apply.
The government wrote in the consultation that it expected the new levy to raise approximately £90m to £100m per year by 2027.
The Gambling Commission will be in charge of distributing the raised funds to various groups, including those involved in research, prevention and treatment.
Between 10 and 20 percent of funds would go to UK Research and Innovation for the establishment of a gambling research programme. Some of that money would also be used by the commission to “to help inform its approach to specific regulatory challenges and/or compliance among licensees”, according to the DCMS.
Between 15 and 30 percent of total levy funds would go towards establishing “a coordinated Great Britain-wide approach to prevention, early intervention and education”.
The remaining 40 to 60 percent will go to the National Health Service (NHS) for treatment and support services.
Dan Waugh of Regulus Partners said the direct funding of services via the NHS is a source of potential concern.
“At the moment, as they acknowledge in the paper, 85 percent of people with gambling disorders or problem gambling will receive treatment from charitable organisations like GamCare and their partners,” Waugh told Vixio GamblingCompliance. "So you've got a situation where potentially the money that used to go to GamCare and other treatment providers is now going to go to the NHS.”
Waugh also pointed out that no other addiction, including alcoholism and drug addiction, was treated outside the NHS.
The levy would be subject to oversight by both a formal levy board composed of the DCMS and various other government departments.
An expert advisory group, to include DCMS, the Gambling Commission, as well as academics and people with lived experience of gambling problems, would also be established "to help inform spending and broader strategic priorities of the levy system".
In introductory notes to the consultation, MP Stuart Andrew, the parliamentary undersecretary of state for sport, gambling and civil society, acknowledged that a statutory level “represents a significant change towards a new funding mechanism for research, prevention and treatment (RPT) and provides an opportunity to improve and expand the system as a whole”.
He wrote that the responses will guide and inform the government’s approach to implementation “via secondary legislation next year”.
The eight-week consultation closes on December 14, 2023.
