Britain’s newest gambling addiction charity has been accused of serious conflict of interest over funding from the betting industry and the involvement of gambling executives on its board.

The Young Gamblers Education Trust, which also operates under the trading name YGAM, was set up two years ago by reformed gambling addict Lee Willows as a private company and acquired charitable status earlier this year.

Since its incorporation in August 2014, it has expanded and taken on a range of industry figures as trustees and ambassadors including its chair of trustees, Dan Waugh, a partner at Regulus Partners, a gambling consultancy, and Dan Rough, the founder of an online scratchcard firm.

Campaigners have criticised the charity and raised concerns over the involvement of people from within the gambling industry.

Simon Perfitt, who set up campaign group Rethink Gambling, said: “The presence of gambling executives and industry lobbyists within the charity is very concerning and in my view represents a serious conflict of interest.



“Gambling charities especially, should be independent and free from industry influence.”



YGAM defended itself from the claims saying it was a “predominantly volunteer-run” organisation that worked closely with people affected by addiction.

Willows said: “YGAM has a diverse board of trustees from a range of sectors whom all bring different insights. We believe such a mix is important as it allows for more informed decision-making. As YGAM evolves, like any other charity, we keep our board composition under review.”

The charity, which distributes educational material for schoolchildren in an effort to prevent them from becoming addicted, receives significant donations directly from gambling firms such as Gala Group, Bet365, Paddy Power, Caesars Entertainment and the Senet Group. Details of the funding are found on its website but the backgrounds of its industry-linked trustees and ambassadors are not.

YGAM is the latest gambling-addiction charity to have clear links to the industry, either through funding or trustees and staff. The model is prevalent throughout the gambling charity sector with many gambling charities funded by industry and heavily populated by current and former industry executives. The Charity Commission received a complaint about YGAM but found that it had not breached charity law.

Perfitt said: “Other gambling charities and support organisations struggle to obtain funding, so I would have to question why the gambling industry is pouring money into this particular charity. Could it be that they see it as a way of discharging their responsibility to contribute to gambling addiction prevention, safe in the knowledge that it will have a minimal effect on gambling harm and on their profits?”

Jim Orford, emeritus professor of clinical and community psychology at the University of Birmingham and founder of campaign group Gambling Watch UK, said the industry-engagement model used by YGAM fits with the “basic philosophy of the gambling establishment” but warned that it could be difficult for charities taking industry cash to speak out on policy issues.



Orford said it was likely that a charity receiving industry donations would “avoid trying to antagonise the industry because they’d be biting the hand that feeds them” and that could give rise to a conflict of interest.

The charity said it was intending to appoint ambassadors Anne and Keith Evans, whose gambling-addicted son killed himself, as trustees. It said that without industry support it would not be able to carry out work, which last year saw it train teachers and youth workers from more than 60 schools, colleges and charities and non-profits.

Willows said: “As with many charities, the work of YGAM relies on income from a broad range of sources which include corporate donations, grants from charitable trusts and foundations, general fund raising, and self-financing. Our board have agreed a diverse income mix which is critical if we are to sustain the work of YGAM in to the longer term.”

YGAM was set up by Willows after he was given a suspended prison sentence for stealing £20,000 from his employer, a young offenders charity called Trailblazers, to fund his own gambling habit.

The charity provides training to teachers, youth workers, mental health staff and prison workers to deliver its own “gambling-related harm-prevention programme”. It also partners with universities to train year two and three psychology students to become YGAM peer mentors.



Along with Waugh and Rough, YGAM’s trustees and ambassadors include Steve Donoughue, a prominent management consultant who specialises in the gambling industry and has worked as political adviser to the William Hill Group; and Andrew Poole, who started his career with counselling service GamCare and is now a compliance manager for Lotto24, and formerly SkyBet.

Another trustee, Anna Small, does not have a background in the gambling industry. Three directors were appointed shortly after YGAM’s incorporation as a private company but resigned a month later, Companies House records show.



One of the directors, Paul Buck, said he did not resign exclusively over funding concerns but admitted to the Guardian he was uncomfortable.

Buck, a reformed gambling addict who now runs Epic, a problem gambling consultancy that accepts no funding from the industry, said he helped Willows set up YGAM because he liked the principle of YGAM.

He said he would have supported YGAM taking funding from the Responsible Gambling Trust (RGT), a charity that distributes contributions from the industry to other charities. But after he helped set up the then private company, it started to take a different direction.

“Lee made the decision to gain and seek funding directly from gambling industry operatives. I’m not saying I resigned because he got involved with the industry because we’re not anti-industry, I’m not anti-gambling, I’m just anti-problem gambling, but it didn’t particularly sit right that direct funding was coming from the industry.”

• This article was amended on 22 August 2016 to remove the names of Sean Hurley and George Parnavelas who are no longer trustees of YGAM. They were listed on the Charity Commission website as trustees at the time of publication.



































