In November 2019, William Hill and the other leading UK gambling companies, together with the Betting and Gaming Council, announced a package of five Safer Gambling Commitments.
These represent a comprehensive set of measures from a wide group of leaders across the sector to support the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms overseen by the Gambling Commission.
Commitment |
Key actions and commitments |
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COMMITMENT I: |
Education: £10.5m for youth education programme with aim of educating every 11-19-year-old in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (in association with GamCare and the Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM). Ad tech: Delivery of 6th edition of IGRG code, which included measures to better protect children from gambling advertising online through advertising technology (ad tech). Protection of young people: High-Value Customer (HVC) Code of Conduct restricting under-25s, implemented and incorporated into Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). |
Preventing underage gambling and protecting young people |
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COMMITMENT II: |
RPT (Research, Prevention and Treatment, previously called RET) funding: In 2019, William Hill together with the other major operators committed to increase funding for research, education and treatment from 0.1% of UK gross gambling yield (GGY) to 1% over four years. This takes our contribution from c.£1m in 2019 to c.£10m in 2023, with an estimated cumulative spend across the participating operators of c.£100m over the period, to achieve a fourfold increase in treatment provision. |
Increasing support for treatment of gambling harm |
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COMMITMENT III: |
6th edition of IGRG code, including updates: Areas addressed include ad tech, negative keyword lists, social media age-gating, search responsibilities for operators and consistency in rules for affiliates. Review of effectiveness of ‘whistle-to-whistle’ ban on advertising: Commissioned independent research that showed the voluntary ban reduced the amount of TV gambling ads seen by 4-17-year-olds by 97%. (Overall, the volume of gambling television ads viewed by young people fell by 70% over the full duration of live sport programmes.) |
Strengthening and expanding codes of practice for advertising and marketing |
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COMMITMENT IV: |
Game Design Code of Conduct: William Hill actively contributed to the development of the code and implemented the measures set out in Phase 1 in September 2020. Data-sharing and single customer view: William Hill has actively contributed to ongoing work exploring how information can be shared to protect vulnerable people, while ensuring that rigorous privacy controls are in place. Improve self-exclusion schemes: ongoing improvements to Multi Operator Self Exclusion Scheme (MOSES) and GAMSTOP. |
Protecting and empowering our customers |
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COMMITMENT V: |
Ongoing focus on continuous improvement of training, policies and procedures and the associated awareness, understanding and support of our colleagues (93.3% of colleagues have completed the safer gambling e-learning module), which is refreshed annually as part of the compliance calendar. 2020 was the last year of the 3-year 2018 LTIP with 20% based on sustainability measures, and prior to cancellation, the 2020 bonus plans was the second year where the 15% sustainability scorecard was utilised, having been introduced in 2019. |
Creating a culture of safer gambling |