The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has outlined the criteria for its Head of Gambling Research role, whose work will be funded through the statutory levy.
However, the job search comes at a time of uncertainty for many gambling harm support charities and groups, who are finding out if they have been successful in acquiring transitional funding.
This funding notification comes just under two weeks before the finances were due to start being used, causing frustration for the Gambling Lived Experience Network (GLEN).
Head of Gambling Research
The UKRI noted in a job description that the new head will be a 24-month fixed-term appointment and will be responsible for the delivery of the Research Programme on Gambling (RPG), addressing gambling-related harms through collaborative, evidence-led research funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) levy.
Under the DCMS levy system, the UKRI operates as the Research Commissioner, alongside Treatment Commissioner NHS England and relevant bodies in Scotland and Wales, as well as the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) as the Prevention Commissioner.
The role will combine programme delivery, strategic leadership, stakeholder engagement and team management, with expectations to establish stable governance, mobilise the flagship centre, ensure clear risk and assurance arrangements are operating and position the RPG as a “credible, trusted programme across government and the research community” within the first year.
Sitting within the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the role will report to the council’s Associate Director – RPG, lead a small team and be the primary point of coordination across UKRI councils, corporate functions and governance structures.
Work listed on the job description included:
- Overseeing end-to-end design and delivery of a complex, high-profile managed programme.
- Coordinating investment management of the flagship Gambling Harms Research Coordination Centre.
- Identifying, mitigating and escalating risks as part of the formal governance of the programme
- Managing cross-UKRI engagement in the programme.
- Implementing a robust MEL strategy for the programme.
- Supporting regular reporting to DCMS.
The job description was posted on 13 March and it has a closing date of 13 April.
GLEN voices levy concerns
As the UKRI seeks a head of its operations, gambling harm support charities and groups, who applied for transitional funding under the levy, have been informed by the OHID if they have been successful.
This has come just under two weeks before the funding announced was due to start being used, which has frustrated the Gambling Lived Experience Network (GLEN).
GLEN said in a statement on LinkedIn: “We truly hope that all organisations in this space received at least the equivalent funding to what their previous costs were because any other situation is NOT a transition which protects existing support to build a better system, but a lottery where services are sacrificed without any assessment or evaluation of needs they currently address.
“13 days notice of whether you have a future or not is hardly fair on the VCSE sector (especially when local authorities have known their funding allocation for some time).
“But at least OHID have been open and honest in acknowledging their shortcomings – handed an unwanted additional responsibility during a time of crippling organisational downsizing for a health area they had NO existing expertise or understanding of… and expected to make “informed” decisions on what existing services are effective, or even necessary.
“Contrast that with NHS England and DHSC, who were handed the chalice named Treatment. They too have been hung out to dry, forced to merge and downsize by 50% while assuming the Gambling Harm treatment portfolio… but unlike OHID, they have simply not even tried to have open communications with those whose very existence they now control.
“Scotland and Wales have been doing their own things, and while consultation hasn’t been brilliant, they are relaying decisions.”
As a result, the GLEN wants to pitch the following questions to the UK government:
- How is this an improvement on what already existed?
- How can you be confident the services not funded can be let go so arbitrarily when no assessment of needs v provision has been conducted?
- Where is the much vaunted hashtag#LivedExperience involvement when current LEROs are being treated as 3rd class stakeholders?
“It is not too late to correct this mess. But you need to listen to the system experts, not the system detractors. That includes LivedExperience. US. We want a system which works for everyone. We are HERE to HELP.
Levy structure
The statutory levy aims to raise approximately £90m-£100m in funding per year, which will be collected and administered by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) under the strategic direction of the UK Government.
Levy rates – the percentage charged on an operator’s gross gambling yield from the previous year – will be 1.1% for online operators, 0.5% for casinos and bookmakers and 0.2% for bingo operators.
Funding will be split as follows: 20% to research to establish the RPG and to the UKGC to direct further research in line with the licensing objectives; 30% to prevention to develop a comprehensive approach to prevention and early intervention; and 50% to treatment to commission treatment and support services, working collaboratively with the third sector.
Levy could collapse due to tax hikes
However, the levy could also be impacted by next month’s UK tax increases on the gambling sector, with remote gaming duty rising from 21% to 40%, in addition to a new 25% general betting duty rate for remote betting being introduced from April 2027 (excluding self-service betting terminals, spread betting, pool bets and horse racing).
This was the warning of Dan Waugh, Partner at Regulus Partners, who appeared on iGaming Daily last November following the UK government’s decision to increase the tax on iGaming.
Waugh said at the time: “Since April, funding for gambling disorder treatment services in this country has been pegged to spending in the licensed market via the statutory levy.
“If spending in the licensed market is reduced as a result of these tax changes, funding for treatment services in this country will fall. That’s a straight mathematical equation, that’s not our opinion, that is just what will happen.
“It’s worth reflecting that if you look at projected funding from the statutory levy to fund treatment services and other harm prevention measures, about 80% comes from online gaming and betting, it’s more than 50% from online gaming.
“If there is significant displacement from the licensed market into the black market in online casino, the statutory levy that was put in place in April to fund treatment services and harm prevention will collapse.”
