Britain’s bookies are falling short of a pledge they made to donate money to charities which help gambling addicts.
Bookmakers agreed to hand over 0.1 per cent of their revenues voluntarily as part of a deal when the last Labour government deregulated the industry in 2005.
But the recommended recipient GambleAware received just £9.6million last year – £400,000 short of its £10million target.
The sum was already lower than the £14.4million it would have received had firms donated in line with their total turnover, estimated at £14.4billion.
Documents seen by the Sunday Mail reveal Bet365, which made operating profits of £660.3million last year on a turnover of £2.86billion, donated just £868,000 to GambleAware.
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The firm’s CEO – billionaire Denise Coates – was paid £265million in 2017.
Ladbrokes Coral owner GVC paid £1.46million into the fund.
The figure is at the higher end of donations made but is a small fraction of the £3billion in revenue raked in by the company.
Ladbrokes was taken over by GVC last year in a deal worth £4billion. In May last year, the firm was criticised for paying an “excessively disproportionate” £67million to two of its bosses.
The company has awarded chief executive Kenny Alexander £45million in share options since 2016. Chairman Larry Feldman picked up share options worth £22.5million.
Paddy Power Betfair gave £445,000 to the GambleAware fund. It reported an 18 per cent increase in “full-year underlying earnings” to £473million in 2017 on revenues of £1.74billion. William Hill gave £1million to GambleAware. It made an operating profit of £234million on revenues of £1.6billion.
CEO Philip Bowcock’s pay deal was worth £1.3million.
Inverclyde MP Ronnie Cowan, vice-chairman of the parliamentary group on gambling-related harm, said the £9.6million figure was “deeply disappointing”.
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He added: “The UK Government must now consider creating a statutory levy to ensure adequate funding is forthcoming.”
GambleAware has insisted the industry is not donating enough, and claimed requirements are set to exceed £10million after 2020.
The Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: “If it turns out that the voluntary system is not capable of meeting current and future needs, we will look at alternatives – everything is on the table.”
Leading bookies all said they were meeting their obligations.
GVC said the firm had committed to increasing voluntary funding commitments from 0.1 per cent to 1 per cent by 2022, while Bet 365 said it made donations to gambling charities “in amounts that exceed any recommended contributions”.
William Hill said it was the second largest donor to Gambleaware and paid £413.5million in taxes last year. Paddy Power said they contributed the recommended 0.1 per cent.
