to claim back the story. I cannot help but think of similarities with the banking sector. The banking sector did successfully claim the story back and one thing I have seen from working in the third sector is many banks have now separated out regulation and corporate social responsibility. This has to be the single most important opportunity for the gambling industry right now. The public can tolerate huge profits, if they get a good sense that a company is doing its bit for the local community or planet. Who would have thought it, HSBC devote huge resources to the Water Programme, Barclays are helping to get older people on line, Lloyds are supporting social entrepreneurs and Natwest have championed financial education for young people. Building digital resilience among young people is the number one priority for Personal, Social, Health & Economic (PSHE) education right now and what a powerful message for the gambling industry to get behind in a collaborative way. Digitally aware 18-25 year-olds, often living with parents, tend to have large disposable incomes. They are likely to have an interest in sports and support teams that retain betting industry sponsors. Is there enough being done to ensure this group is aware of the pitfalls of gambling? Sport and gambling are absolutely wrapped together; many young adults enjoy watching a football match and having a bet. With the rise of in-play betting there are now many more opportunities. Is this a problem? Well, no I don’t think it is; in my view many young adults enjoy a couple of drinks during a match and so what is the difference. If we take the view that gambling affects a minority of people, then surely this is the same for alcohol. However, as we know gambling is emotive, whereas alcohol isn’t and therefore going back to what I said earlier about Corporate Social Responsibly, football teams, whether sponsored by gambling companies or not, may choose to take a look at what they are doing to safeguard their fans against gambling harm. There seems to be a great opportunity here to develop something impactful and for football to take the story back. What I do draw the line at, however, is under 18s football kits; these should not be sponsored by gambling companies; it is the right thing to do.
How is YGAM funded? 76% of YGAM’s income for the period ending 30 June 2017 was from direct corporate donations by the gambling industry, with the remaining 24% coming from charitable trusts & foundations, individuals or sales. We are not funded by GambleAware and are working hard to develop a diverse income base for the charity. Our challenges are around restricted vs unrestricted income and developing reserves for the charity, not who funds the work of charity. Fundraising is incredibly hard to do and the ‘norm’ within this sector is gambling companies donate to GambleAware. We have spent a considerable amount of time developing relationships with the sector and I am proud that some operators have got behind our social purpose. YGAM is authentic, delivers exceptional social value and we have been able to offer employee volunteering opportunities to those who support our social purpose which have proven popular. 2018 is a critical year for YGAM and to help us develop our unrestricted income and build a small amount of reserves we have incorporated a trading subsidiary, where all profits will be donated back to the charity. This trading subsidiary will offer the gambling industry bespoke, formal qualifications in identifying problem gambling, risk management and AML and customer service. For those wishing to find out more about YGAM how can they contact you? We love to hear from your readers if you want to support our amazing impactful start-up charity via corporate donations, employee volunteering or to discuss your training needs. YGAM will be at ICE 2018 (Stand CPZ4), please do come and see us or visit our website: www.ygam.org. Finally I can be contacted personally at: lee@ygam.org
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