Public Health Wales has launched a £1.4 million Gambling Harms Voluntary Sector Grant Fund with the Wales Council for Voluntary Action to back prevention, early intervention and support for gambling-related harm across Wales. The two-year programme will provide up to £700,000 a year, with grants of up to £75,000 annually available to registered charities, community interest companies, social enterprises and voluntary groups delivering work in Wales.
According to National Health Executive, the scheme is the first phase of a wider Public Health Wales programme to address gambling-related harm through prevention, early intervention and community-based support. WCVA will administer the fund through an accessible, fully bilingual application process, and the fund is open to local and national organisations of any size if they can show their work will help prevent harm and improve outcomes for people in Wales.
Public Health Wales wants projects that reach communities disproportionately affected by gambling harm, including people facing financial hardship, people involved with the criminal justice system and families affected by another person’s gambling. The programme is also intended to increase awareness, amplify lived experience and build evidence on what works in prevention and intervention.
The launch sits against a wider concern about the scale of gambling harm. The Gambling Commission says around 2 million adults in Great Britain may be experiencing some level of harm, including 340,000 problem gamblers, and that there is a gap between need and formal support. Its National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms ran from April 2019 to April 2022 and aimed to make treatment more accessible, improve commissioning and care pathways and support people with other mental health issues alongside gambling harms.
In a separate Welsh Government announcement, specialist NHS gambling treatment services and the Wales Gambling Helpline were due to launch from 1 April. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board was awarded £1.3 million a year to run them, the helpline will offer advice and referrals, treatment will be available remotely through a secure online platform, and the government said the work is funded by the UK-wide gambling levy, which came into effect in April 2025 and raised about £120 million in its first year.
Applications for the new fund open on 31 August and close on 19 October, and a joint Public Health Wales and WCVA information webinar is due on 12 August.
