The Know Daily - Tuesday 17 October

_{Read in 5m 24s ∙ Listening to boygenius}

The UK’s first ever project to release wildcats into the Scottish Highlands has been hailed as a “success so far”. Nineteen cats were released at Cairngorms National Park this summer, with a further release of kittens planned for next year. It’s all pretty pawsitive news for the endangered species!

🎲 Placing a new bet

Gambling companies could be required to pay around £100m a year to fund addiction research, prevention and treatment on the NHS, under new government plans for a mandatory levy.

What’s the story?
The government has proposed that online bookmakers and casinos would be required to pay 1% of their gross gambling yield, while traditional betting shops and casinos would pay a fee of around 0.4%.

This would raise an estimated £100 million, which would go directly into NHS services and help support specialist addiction clinics across the country. The proposals are now subject to an eight-week consultation.

How is this different from the current situation?
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it was introducing the mandatory levy to “ensure all operators contribute their fair share”, noting that some operators currently pay as little as £1 towards research, prevention and treatment.

The current system of voluntary contributions has also been “tarnished by concerns that the industry wields too much power over how the money is distributed”, said The Guardian. In 2022, the NHS announced that it would stop taking money from the gambling industry to treat people with addiction partly due to “conflicts of interest”.

What’s the bigger picture?
The proposed levy is part of a wider plan to overhaul UK gambling laws, published by the government in April this year and aimed at bringing regulations up to date “after a rise in betting via smartphones on apps and other online platforms”, said Reuters.

Other measures - such as introducing lower online stake limits and “affordability checks” to prevent large losses - are still out for consultation.