Glasgow City Council receives £3.44m in funding for gambling programmes
The funding from the British Gambling Levy is intended to expand The Glasgow Project.
UK.- Glasgow City Council has been awarded £3.44m over the next three years to strengthen its programmes addressing gambling-related harm. According to GlasgowLive, the funding will come from the new British Gambling Levy and will be directed towards expanding The Glasgow Project’s gambling harm initiatives.
The investment is intended to expand prevention programmes in schools and youth services, offering support to young people struggling with gambling-related debt. Training across health, community and public services is also planned, alongside targeted interventions in three neighbourhoods identified as having the highest density of betting shops.
For 2026–27, priorities include hiring additional prevention staff, revitalising the city’s multi-agency partnership, and creating a specialist financial inclusion service to support those most affected.
A recent report from the council’s Wellbeing, Equalities, Communities, Culture and Engagement Policy Committee highlighted that gambling harm costs Glasgow more than £15m annually, the highest figure in Scotland. It also noted that around 42 per cent of the city’s betting outlets are located in its most deprived areas. Today, the UK’s new Labour prime minister Andy Burnham confirmed new powers for local authorities in Britain to reject applications for betting shops and gaming halls in Britain.
The project is funded through the statutory levy introduced in April 2025. Designed to raise around £100m each year, the levy replaced the previous voluntary funding model overseen by GambleAware. The Gambling Commission collects payments under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The DCMS has distributed £25.4m from the levy to 33 voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations across England.
Glasgow’s funding builds on earlier pilots and public health initiatives that adopted a whole-system approach to gambling harm. In January 2025, Public Health Scotland published findings mapping the city’s support networks and identifying risk factors. This followed Glasgow City Council’s recognition of gambling harm as a public health issue.
Elsewhere in the UK, Public Health Wales (PHW) has announced a new levy-funded programme for community-led gambling harm initiatives in Wales. The Gambling Harms Voluntary Sector Grant Fund will provide up to £700,000 per year over a two-year period, with individual organisations able to apply for up to £75,000 annually.
