The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities has allocated more than £9.4 million to four gambling-harms organisations described as aligned with campaigners, expanding its prevention grant programme after disputes over the first round of awards.
Gambling with Lives received £1.9 million, Gamban £2.7 million, GamLearn £1.8 million and Chapter One £3.1 million. Gambling with Lives represents families bereaved by gambling-related suicide, while Gamban is Matt Zarb-Cousin’s gambling-blocking software business. Zarb-Cousin said the grant was a further step towards removing barriers to effective protection.
The government’s published funding list puts the wider provisional allocation at £39.7 million for 40 voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations for 2026 to 2028. That is up from an earlier £25.4 million allocation to 33 organisations, an increase of about £14 million, or more than 56%.
The listed figures remain subject to the completion of grant agreements and could change. Beacon Counselling Trust was allocated £1.6 million, while Waythrough and Tameside, Oldham, Glossop and Stockport Mind were also among the recipients.
NEXT.io reported that legal challenges were involved for many organisations that subsequently secured funding. It said Gamban and other groups excluded from grants had pursued a judicial review of the eligibility process, and that OHID had no appeal process for third-sector organisations unsuccessful in the initial round.
The earlier process prompted dissatisfaction among campaigners. Derek Webb criticised what he called a lack of transparency, while one campaigner told NEXT.io they believed political interference had affected the first decisions. That view was contested: an oversight source said they had seen no evidence of political interference, and a source from a legacy charity called the allegation “laughable.”
A separate criticism was that campaigner-aligned organisations had less sector experience and therefore made less competitive initial applications. Another funded-charity source said funding for established charities had fallen from the pre-levy period while much of the increased money was going to newer entrants.
OHID’s fund supports gambling-harms prevention in England and is financed through the prevention share of the statutory gambling levy on operators. Applications for this round were open from Jan. 14 to Feb. 6. The grant is separate from NHS England’s treatment funding and from a local-authority programme, which is distributing £12 million to upper-tier councils in 2026 to 2027.
The new gambling-harms funding model began on April 1, replacing the previous industry-funded system overseen by GambleAware. Organisations had been required to move away from direct industry funding, and delays in releasing grants left some charities waiting months for money after selection decisions. The statutory levy raised £120 million in 2025, with prevention, research and treatment funded through separate streams.
