UK gambling minister says levy board will prevent conflicts of interest
Baroness Twycross faced questions at the Peers for Gambling Reform Gambling Summit in Westminster.
UK.- Gambling minister Baroness Twycross has addressed concerns raised about potential conflicts of interest in research funded by the new mandatory British gambling levy.
Introduced in April, the new levy replaces the previous system of voluntary donations to GambleAware. The aim is to raise £100m for the “research, prevention, and treatment of gambling harms”, with funds to be administered by the NHS and the Gambling Commission. A fifth of the money raised will go to research, led by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The UKRI opened a call for researchers to apply to join its Gambling Harms Research Coordination Centre in June. However, a group of experts last month told the British Medical Journal (BMJ) that the call threatened the “opportunity for a fresh start” because industry stakeholders had been invited to participate
The issue was raised with Twycross this week when she attended the Peers for Gambling Reform Gambling Summit at St Ermin’s Hotel, Westminster, on Wednesday. Sam Chamberlain, professor of psychiatry at the University of Southampton, said: “There’s been a lack of funding from our trusted funding bodies. In pragmatic terms, the industry has been giving cash to one massive charity that then has been handing out that money to various organisations.”
In response, Twycross insisted: “Independence is as important to me as it is to you. When I took on this role it was made really clear to me one of the greatest challenges you face in using research, was concerns over whether research was funded by organisations with clear vested interests and those couldn’t be trusted.
“So I have been assured that robust processes will be in place to identify and manage any conflicts of interest, including ensuring there is no influence rising as a result of the previous funding arrangements.”
Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller also attended the summit. He raised concerns that local authorities were expecting the national regulator to undertake the role of inspecting physical gambling premises, a responsibility that falls on local government under the 2005 Gambling Act. His comments came just as UK prime minister Keir Starmer pledged to give local authorities more control over gambling venue applications.
First gambling levy invoices issued
The British Gambling Commission has announced that the first invoices for the new statutory gambling levy on licensed operators are now available online through eServices. Full payment for this financial year (April 2025 to April 2026) will be required by October 1.
For the first year of the statutory levy each licensee will receive one combined invoice for all British gambling activity, and a second invoice for non-British activity if appropriate.
The rate that licensees must pay will range from 0.1 per cent of gross gambling revenue (GGR) for remote and non-remote pool betting operations, gambling machine operations and family entertainment centres to 1.1 per cent for online gambling and betting, bingo and software licensees.
Land-based casino and retail betting licensees will pay a rate in the middle of that at 0.5 per cent of GGR. Both remote and non-remote society lottery operating licence holders and external lottery manager operating licence holders will pay a 0.1 per cent rate.
