Baroness Twycross last week confirmed that the inaugural year of the Statutory Gambling Levy has raised funds in excess of all expectations.
In a statement to Parliament, the Gambling Minister reported: “Subject to final checks, this year the statutory levy has raised just under £120 million, which will be ringfenced solely for the use of tackling gambling-related harm.”
Officially launched in April 2025, the £120 million from the Levy’s first year was collected from the industry by the Gambling Commission, providing “for the first time,” she emphasised, “independent and sustainable funding for gambling-related harms research, prevention and treatment.”
The monies will be split three ways: 20 percent to research and innovation, 30 percent for the development of a comprehensive approach for the prevention of gambling-related harm, and the remaining 50 percent to third sector bodies to deliver on the ground support services.
During her statement, Twycross also detailed the extensive list of bureaucratic bodies set-up to ensure governance and to hold commissioners to account.
What was essentially a day of achievement, the sour note, and one clearly not grasped by either the government or regulator, was the date the Levy funds will hit the streets.
It will, effectively, be one whole year for the money, collected six months ago, to even start rolling out.
Twycross confirmed charities will have to wait until the New Year to lodge their applications with “grant funds being accessible from April 2026.”
It was a timing greeted poorly by both the industry and the media. The former has long been vociferous in its call to release funds to charities immediately, adding, bureaucratic processes not withstanding, that they should at least force the release of the circa £30-40 million sitting in the bank at GambleAware which still hasn’t distributed funds collected directly from voluntary industry contributions over a year ago.
These calls were echoed by national media this week which delivered a scathing attack and warned of charities closing down services and becoming so financially strapped that they do not think they will exist in time to even apply for a Levy grant in three weeks.
What was meant to be excellent news for the third sector, and more importantly the people at risk that it serves, it had a poisonous sting in its tail.
And that, according to the majority of analysts and industry figures, is down to abject failures by commissioning bodies to get funds from their bank accounts, into gambling harm services and as quickly as possible on to services that will support vulnerable players.
Originally published on Coinslot on December 15, 2025. Republished with permission.