OHID awards gambling harms groups more than £9.4m in UK funding
Funding2 min read
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities awarded more than £9.4m to gambling harms organisations in the UK, according to a report. Recipients include Gambling with Lives, Gamban, GamLearn, Chapter One and Beacon Counselling Trust; the funding page puts total provision through 2028 at £39.7m.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has awarded more than £9.4m to gambling harms groups, following legal challenges to earlier funding decisions, according to the report.
Gambling with Lives, a charity for families bereaved by gambling-related suicide, is among those chosen, as is Gamban, the blocking software firm linked to Matt Zarb-Cousin. Gambling with Lives received £1,881,859 and Gamban £2,714,063, respectively. Chapter One is due £3,057,218, while GamLearn is due £1,831,218. Beacon Counselling Trust, based in Northwest England and funded under the earlier system, also obtained £1,638,142 from OHID. Waythrough and Tameside, Oldham, Glossop and Stockport Mind were also among the recipients.
Zarb-Cousin said in a press release that the OHID funding was “a further step towards Gamban’s goal of removing barriers to effective protection”.
Campaigners were dissatisfied after many of their organisations failed to win initial harms prevention bids earlier in the year. Derek Webb, described as a major Labour donor and gambling reform funder, has lobbied against the move through several articles in recent months. In April, he wrote in Labour List, and went on to say that the Cabinet Office rulebook "urgently needs rewriting" if everything were done by the book.
One campaigner reportedly believed there had been political interference in the initial funding round. An individual at a legacy charity responded that the allegation was “laughable”. Another source argued that campaigner-aligned charities had less experience in the sector and so submitted less competitive bids. A source who had been involved in an oversight role said: “I didn’t see any evidence of any kind of political interference.” A source at another funded charity reportedly said funding for legacy charities had been reduced compared with the period before the levy, with much of the increased levy funding going to new entrants.
Dan Waugh of Regulus Partners criticised the decision, saying: “We’ve now ended up in a situation where the gambling industry is funding organisations who are trying to put it out of business.” The report also said the prevention funding in many cases took months to reach organisations’ bank accounts, which some sources described as unfair to the third sector.