£9.4 million for UK gambling harm charities

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), a body of the UK government, has awarded more than £9.4 million to groups linked to campaigners fighting gambling harm, following legal challenges. Among the recipient organisations are Gambling with Lives, which represents families who have lost relatives to gambling-related suicide, and Gamban, the gambling blocking software company led by Matt Zarb-Cousin.

Gambling with Lives received £1,881,859 and Gamban received £2,714,063. Other campaigning charities include GamLearn, which received £1,831,218, and Chapter One, which received £3,057,218. Beacon Counselling Trust, based in north west England and funded under the previous system, also received £1,638,142 from OHID. Waythrough and Mind in Tameside, Oldham, Glossop and Stockport are also among the organisations that received funding.

NEXT.io reported that OHID did not offer an appeal process for voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations that did not receive funding in the first round. It is said that many of the organisations that did receive funding reached that outcome through legal proceedings. According to the updated VCSE funding page, the total harm prevention funding available up to 2028 has risen from £25.4 million to £39.7 million. This is an increase of about £14 million, or more than 56 percent.

The news follows discontent after many campaigning organisations had their initial applications rejected earlier this year. Derek Webb, a major donor to Labour who funds work in gambling reform, has written against these decisions in recent months. In an article published in LabourList in April, Webb argued that the previous system still lacks transparency and compared the situation to the PPE scandal during the Covid period.