The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association (GBGA) is proud to announce that it has completed the set-up, formation and funding of the Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation (GGCF) as a registered charity.

The primary aims and objectives of the GGCF are to fund research into areas that will provide consumers, gaming industry leaders, and Government regulators with usable empirically based knowledge about how to: minimise gambling harm; reduce the impact of gambling disorders and protect at risk consumers.

The GGCF will be operated independently from the GBGA under the support and guidance of  councillors Stephen Reyes and Selvan Soobiah with Belvedere Trustees Limited as corporate councillor and will initially predominately fund research that will take place at the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming (CERG) that is being set up by the University of Gibraltar. The GGCF has currently raised over £2.5 million from Gibraltar gaming companies to fund the setting up of the CERG and fund it for, initially at least, the next 3 years.

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The Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation will use the money raised to fund the research primarily through the CERG into areas such as:

• the impact of problem gambling on individuals, families and society and the means of mitigating negative impacts
• the prevalence of gambling addiction or other problematic behaviours and mitigation factors to prevent such adverse impacts from gambling
• practical solutions that gambling operators can implement to minimise the harm associated with problem gambling
• standardised identification, monitoring and measuring criteria for problem gambling and responsible gambling measures implemented to avoid problem gambling
• the creation, co-ordination and management of a database of online gaming industry information that can assist with research into problem gambling and responsible and safer gambling measures

Nigel Birrell, GBGA Chairman commented; “This is a pivotal step change for all Gibraltar Licensed Operators and the Jurisdiction as a whole. Having now raised an initial £2.5 million from Gibraltar Licensed Operators, we are proud to be able to hand over a well-funded foundation to Stephen and Selvan to progress Responsible Gaming Research and Development. This could not have been achieved without the open and constant support of the University of Gibraltar, who have set up this centre to help drive a change in customer protection. The GBGA, via the GGCF will be supporting the creation of an industry leading research programme aimed at exploring solutions to minimise gambling related harm and the creation of open-source databases for academic studies.

“On behalf of the GBGA I would also like to thank the Government of Gibraltar and in particular the Minister for Gaming Albert Isola and the Gambling regulator Andrew Lyman for their unwavering support and also Peter Montegriffo of Hassans for his assistance in establishing the Foundation.”

Stephen Reyes, Chairman of the Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation said; “We are thrilled that the Foundation is up and running and that we can now commence the funding of research into these critically important areas with the support of the University of Gibraltar.  Gibraltar is known globally as a premier jurisdiction in the online gambling area, so it is great that as an industry the operators have come together and set up and formed this charitable Foundation to invest in academic research to inform effective initiatives to encourage responsible gambling and prevent gambling harm.”