Flutter Entertainment CEO Peter Jackson is against the idea of allocating money from a new statutory levy to anti-gambling groups. The UK government released its long-awaited white paper on gambling legislation reform on Thursday.
new charge could raise up to £100m ($125m) annually
One of the new measures will see the creation of a new levy that gambling operators must pay. The UK Gambling Commission will collect this money and allocate to programs for gambling harm treatment and research purposes. This new charge could raise up to £100m ($125m) annually.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Jackson said he hopes that the funds will be focused on addiction-related education, treatment, and research. He doesn’t want any of the money “to be used for people to be campaigning to stop gambling.” Jackson believes that these groups had their say during the course of the white paper consultation.
The UK government intends to begin a consultation in the coming months to decide on the size of the levy and how to allocate the funds. Many of the big gambling companies already voluntarily contribute 1% of their gross gaming revenue annually towards addiction-related programs. NHS gambling addiction services do not accept any of this money, but they will take funds from the new government-run levy.
