The legal section

From a voluntary donation to a charge with a rate

Until April 2025 research, prevention and treatment of gambling harm in Britain were paid for by donations the industry chose to make. Since then they have been paid for by a levy the industry has to pay, and the body that used to collect the donations is winding itself up.

From a donation to a charge

Until April 2025 research, prevention and treatment of gambling harm in Great Britain were funded by donations the industry chose to make, at a rate it chose, to bodies it largely chose. Since the sixth of April 2025 they have been funded by a statutory levy: a charge set in regulations, payable by every licensed operator, collected by the Gambling Commission and distributed by government.

The change is structural rather than financial. A voluntary contribution could be reduced, redirected or withheld, and the organisations receiving it were in the position of asking the industry they were meant to be studying for their budget; a levy removes that relationship, and with it the most frequent criticism of the previous arrangement.

The charity that is closing

GambleAware administered a large part of the voluntary system, commissioning treatment, running the public campaigns and maintaining the website most readers have seen referenced at the foot of a gambling advertisement. With the levy in place its function is being taken over by government commissioners across England, Scotland and Wales. The charity announced that it would cease operations and hand over by the thirty-first of March 2026, continuing to honour existing commissioning agreements until the new system took over in April 2026. Its chair described the process as a managed closure rather than a collapse, which is accurate and is not how it has generally been reported.

The reason this matters on a page like this one is practical rather than sentimental. A great many gambling sites, including a great many «affiliate» (a publisher paid for the account rather than for the advertisement) sites, carry a link to a charity that is winding up, and you in difficulty who follows it should still arrive somewhere useful. We point instead at the helpline, which has not changed, and at the organisation that runs it.

What has not changed

The National Gambling Helpline is on 0808 8020 133, it is free, it is open every hour of every day, and it is operated by GamCare, which is a separate organisation from the one that is closing. Treatment through the National Gambling Support Network continues, and the NHS gambling clinics continue. GAMSTOP is unaffected entirely. It is funded separately, participation in it is a condition of every remote operating licence, and nothing in the levy transition touches it.

What to watch over the next year

Two things. The first is whether the new commissioning arrangements preserve the independence that the levy was introduced to create, since money collected by a regulator and distributed by government is a different arrangement from money collected and distributed by an arm's-length charity, with its own risks rather than none. The second is service continuity during the handover, which the providers themselves have flagged. An organisation inside a commissioning transition has a funding horizon measured in months, and the practical consequence for you are that a service found through an old link may have moved.

Questions readers ask

When did the statutory levy start?

It took effect on 6 April 2025, replacing the voluntary contributions the industry had been making. It is set in regulations, collected by the Gambling Commission through the licensing system, and distributed by government across research, prevention and treatment.

Does the levy cost me anything as a player?

Not directly. It is charged to the operator as a percentage of gross gambling yield, and like any cost of doing business it sits somewhere in the pricing. What it changes for you is who funds the research and treatment system, and on what terms.

Is GambleAware closing, and should I still use its website?

The charity announced it would cease operations by 31 March 2026, with its work transferring to government commissioners from April 2026. The helpline that matters is the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, run by GamCare, which is a different organisation and is not closing.

Does any of this affect GAMSTOP?

No. GAMSTOP is funded separately, and participation in it is a condition of every remote operating licence in Great Britain. The levy transition does not touch it, and a registration made today works exactly as it did before.

By the UK Pound Casino editorial team · Last updated November 2026 · Online since 2026