The UK Gambling Commission and Betfred have agreed a settlement of £3.25 million following an investigation which revealed social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failures.
According to the commission’s public statement, Done Bros (Cash Betting) Limited, trading as Betfred, failed in its responsibility to protect its customers while also having ineffective AML procedures and protocols. The failings happened at the UK bookmaker between January 2021 and December 2022.
Social responsibility failures
- Insufficient controls to protect new customers
- Ineffective monitoring of play and duration without safer gambling interaction
- Assuming that winning customers were not potential problem gamblers – no gambling interactions for a customer who staked £517,499 over two months
- No evidence or record keeping of effectiveness of customer interactions
Anti-money laundering failures
- Financial alerts (thresholds) set too high
- Poor record keeping
- Failing to consistently obtain appropriate ‘know your customer’ identification and Source of Funds (SoF) documentation when thresholds met
- Relying on open-source information
Kay Roberts, executive director of operations at the Commission, said:
“In recent years there’s been a public focus on online gambling but this case illustrates how important it is for us to continue our drive to raise standards across the whole industry.
Gambling is a legitimate leisure activity enjoyed safely by millions but it is vital that every single operator – either online or offline – has in place effective safeguards to prevent harm or crime.”
The first six months of 2023 saw gambling regulators across Europe, North America, and Australia issue fines totaling £64,490,694 / €75,187,033. During that time the UKGC issued 11 penalties totaling £36,945,035 / €43,070,716 representing 57.3% of all fines issued in the first half of the year.
This latest settlement brings the UKGC’s total fines for 2023 so far to £40,789,035 / €47,504,794.
Olivia has worked as an editor and writer for major brands across multiple niches. She now focuses on the iGaming and sports betting industries.