Oh dear. If you thought GambleAware were useless, it looks like the third sector might have its work cut out with its successor as well. It may be early days of the Gambling Levy funds process, but things can only get better as the first tranche of awards have left some charities shaking their notification envelopes in the hope of finding some dosh stuck inside. In many cases so far, the charities were left disappointed, and bitterly so.
The Gambling Lived Experience Network has demanded the government explain how the allocation of the new Levy is an improvement on what previously existed, as numerous VCSE groups closed due to funding shortfalls, delayed decisions, and lack of transparency.
Organisations expected to provide Prevention services under the new regime were given just 13 days notice of successful funding, while Treatment services remain in the dark, with existing service capacity being actively undermined during the transition.
“A Levy which was supposed to double or triple funding available to Prevention and Treatment will now be questioned as to why, if that were to be the case, the existing funding agreements in the system couldn’t simply have been guaranteed and honoured over a period of two to three years while a full needs and impact assessment was conducted,” said GLEN’s Mark Conway.
“The levy has exceeded expected receipts; £120m rather than £90m in year one. So why will some services now end up making sweeping redundancies, or even closing altogether? I, and others, will be asking this very loudly. I hope the APPG and LevyLovers have their answers ready, because ‘we didn’t foresee this’ is not an acceptable answer. We all saw it coming a mile off.”
Originally published on Coinslot on March 30, 2026. Republished with permission.