GamCare has vowed to continue to support the wider gambling harm treatment sector’s ongoing transition under the statutory levy on gambling harms.

The UK’s biggest frontline charity and provider of treatment, support and intervention services of gambling harms/addiction has published its Trustee Report 2025/2026. 

The report covers GamCare activities during the “the last financial year of the voluntary levy system, ahead of new statutory levy commissioning from April 2026 by NHS England”.

NHS England is one of the three stewards of gambling harm funding under the levy system, the others being  the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Reflecting on a period of encompassing a system transition for gambling-harm organisations, Chair Margot Daly said GamCare’s priority had been “to keep the quality of services at the centre of every decision”.

“After nearly three decades in this sector, we know that periods of change are when quality and continuity matter most, and as we continue delivering in England and Scotland under the new arrangements, that is where our focus will stay.”

A breakdown of GamCare’s frontline activities during 2025/26 detailed:

• More than 114,000 National Helpline and digital contacts: demonstrating sustained demand for immediate and confidential gambling-harm support across multiple channels.
• More than 11,400 onward referrals: around one in ten contacts resulted in a referral, highlighting the Helpline’s role as the “principal gateway into treatment and specialist support”.
• Some 2,811 treatment clients received more than 10,300 sessions: equivalent to an average of approximately 3.7 sessions per client and reflecting the delivery of structured support beyond initial intervention.
• Demand for financial guidance almost tripled, from 354 to 969 people: indicating that debt, household finances and economic insecurity are becoming increasingly prominent dimensions of gambling-related harm.
• Almost 97% of surveyed treatment completers reported a positive change in their circumstances: providing evidence of positive treatment outcomes among clients who completed the programme and responded to the survey.

GamCare reported that clients received a full assessment within an average of 2.4 days. 

On the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), average scores declined from 14.4 at the beginning of treatment to 3.3 upon completion, while scores measuring psychological distress more than halved.

Beyond its frontline services, GamCare continued to expand its education, prevention and outreach programmes, reaching more than 17,100 people before gambling-related harm escalated.

Education remained a core prevention resource, with “more than 2,100 professionals trained to recognise gambling-related harm” across sectors including health and social care, criminal justice, financial services and the armed forces.

The charity will also expand its focus on emerging forms of harm during 2026/27, including crypto trading, unlicensed operators and informal gambling activity. A dedicated evidence briefing on crypto-related harms will be produced using insight gathered by its frontline teams.

Gamcare tops CQC marks

The annual report follows an independent assessment by the Care Quality Commission, which found GamCare’s Helpline and treatment service “safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.”

The CQC confirmed that treatment decisions were guided by clients’ needs and preferences and found no evidence that GamCare’s services had been influenced by the gambling industry.

Feedback from wider stakeholders told CQC that GamCare was “fully integrated, not acting like an external organisation on the periphery”, with its relationships across the treatment system described as “genuinely collaborative and effective”.  

The independent assessment described GamCare staff as “compassionate and motivated”, while commissioners awarded the charity an “average satisfaction rating of 4.9 out of five”.

Chief Executive Victoria Corbishley welcomed the results following a year of broader organisational transformation.

“Behind every one of this year’s 114,000 contacts to the National Gambling Helpline and its online services is a person who chose to ask for support – often for the first time,” she said.

“That same care runs through to treatment. This year, people were assessed within days and nearly 97% told us it brought positive change in their lives. We enter the new commissioning landscape with a clear mandate, a proven model and an unwavering commitment to the people we serve.”

GamCare builds £16m buffer

GamCare recorded income of £19.9m during 2025/26, broadly stable against £20.3m in the previous financial year. Expenditure declined from £16.1m to £14.8m, producing an annual surplus of £5m.

The surplus increased total reserves from £11m to almost £16m, including £2.4m in restricted funds. Trustees also designated £2m for digital development as GamCare seeks to modernise its online and self-guided support services.

GamCare directly linked its higher cash reserves to instability surrounding future funding structures of the Statutory Levy: “The closing reserves position has boosted the Charity’s financial and operational resilience, providing financial stability in a shifting external landscape in which future funding uncertainties continue.”

The stronger reserves position comes as the charity adjusts to the end of the voluntary funding system, formerly led by the defunct steward of GambleAware. Group accounts detail that  industry donations fell by 44%, from £7.5m to £4.2m, as direct contributions from gambling operators were forced to come to an end. 

GambleAware closed in March 2026 after issuing its final grants. GamCare must now balance its public-sector contracts and diversify its income to reduce its long-term dependence on statutory funding.

The transition was accompanied by a reduction in staffing. Average employee numbers fell from 253 to 229, while average full-time-equivalent employment declined from 241 to 198. Payments relating to termination settlements increased from £51,391 to £182,655.

Trustees have consequently established an operating-reserves target of between £9m and £11m. GamCare said the policy reflected “ongoing uncertainties around funding, changes in cashflow patterns with most services now being funded in arrears and the need for more investment in GamCare’s digital services and infrastructure”.

Levy anxieties continue

The buildout of GamCare’s £16m reserves is likely to raise concerns across the gambling-harm and third sector observers. The charity’s account of the uncertain levy transition highlights the greater risks facing smaller organisations without its financial scale of GamCare. 

At present, NHS England guarantees the contract of GamCare to continue operating the National Gambling Helpline and to deliver outreach and treatment services across four English regions. OHID has also awarded the charity more than £4m to expand its outreach work across Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands, London and the South East.

In Scotland, GamCare secured funding to provide treatment and prevention services across the Highlands and Islands. Its commissioned helpline services in Wales, however, were not renewed under the new arrangements, although the National Gambling Helpline remains available to callers from Wales.

GamCare said that its financial reserves, integrated service model and commissioning experience would be used to protect continuity of care as Britain’s new statutory system takes shape.

Chief Executive Corbishley acknowledged that the first statutory levy awards had exposed lessons for the new system, stating: “The first phase of levy-funded commissioning has generated important learning about how services can be commissioned and coordinated effectively across a complex system.”

Further disruption may follow. GamCare warned that “the landscape will continue to change”, as the government’s proposed abolition of NHS England will transfer commissioning responsibilities to Integrated Care Boards from April 2027.

The charity also noted that its current NHS England treatment contracts “have been issued for a single year only”, leaving further commissioning decisions to be made before responsibilities are transferred to the new structure.

GamCare has therefore offered to work with the government and commissioners on an early review of governance arrangements, allowing lessons from the statutory levy’s first commissioning cycle to be addressed before the next structural transition.