The UK Gambling Commission has announced that it has fined Petfre Limited a total of £2.87 million (€3.2 million) following an investigation that uncovered social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failures.
Petfre Limited is based in Gibraltar and runs betfred.com and oddsking.com.
During its investigation the Commission uncovered social responsibility failures that included:
- No controls to prevent large levels of high velocity spend by new customers (one new customer lost £70k in just 10 hours)
- Safer gambling interaction triggers were set too high (one customer only received a second interaction after depositing £323,715 and losing £69,371 — this weas four months after their first interaction due to high losses)
Anti-money laundering failures discovered by the Commission included:
- Not taking into account money laundering and terrorist financing (MLTF) risks
- Not having appropriate policies, procedures and controls in place to recognise and control MLTF risks
- Not ensuring that these policies and controls were implemented effectively
- Failing to implement measures described in the Money Laundering Regulations
- Failing to adequately train staff in the previously mentioned policies
Speaking of the fine, Leanne Oxley, Gambling Commission Director of Enforcement and Intelligence, said:
“This is a further example of us taking action to investigate and sanction alarming failures.
We expect this gambling business and all other licensees to review this case and look closely to see if they need to make further improvements to demonstrate active compliance. Where standards do not improve, tougher enforcement will follow.”
Olivia has worked as an editor and writer for major brands across multiple niches. She now focuses on the iGaming and sports betting industries.
