The UK's biggest gaming groups met yesterday at the country's largest casino to launch the new Responsible Gambling Trust - a new charity designed to streamline a process that "wasn't working."
The event, held at Aspers at Westfield Stratford City, officially launched the new-look charity, which will take on the fundraising and commissioning roles previously held by The GREaT Foundation and the Responsible Gambling Fund.
Marc Etches, the organisation's chief executive officer, thanked The GREaT Foundation's supporters and announced that the industry had achieved its target of raising £5m last year to fund research and treatment of problem gambling.
There is a "sense of optimism" with the launch of the new Trust, so much so that the fundraising target for 2012/13 is being set higher.
Neil Goulden, the Trust's chairman, said that the new charity creates a single body charged with the task of both raising and distributing funds to tackle problem gambling. The old structure, he said, "wasn't working" and a change was needed to achieve greater success.
"The Responsible Gambling Trust gives us that opportunity for a new start but that success is not guaranteed," he said. The focus now will be to ensure that this new structure works because a mandatory levy would be "too horrible to contemplate."
Key providers, including GamCare and the Gordon Moody Association, were also on hand to offer an insight into how they have benefited from the support of the industry.
Former Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe also attended the event following his appointment as a trustee of the charity.
A full report will be included in the May issue of InterGaming.
