Entain’s Ladbrokes brand is facing a High Court legal action that accuses the company of enabling a problem gambler by allowing him to gamble significant sums and failing to place restrictions on his account.
Customer allowed to gamble £18k per day with no AML checks
The customer, Simon Rose, has accused British Bookmaker Ladbrokes of allowing him to place wagers totaling £1.8 million (€2.1 million) over a period of seven months in 2015-16. His betting activity on the days he gambled averaged at £18,000 (€21,135) per day. His losses during the seven month period came to £231,000 (€271,234).
Despite his take-home pay of just £3,000 (€3,522) per month, Rose was given a deposit limit of £20,000 (€23,481). The High Court action suggests that this was a clear failure on the part of the company to protect its customers from the harms of problem gambling while also breaching anti-money laundering (AML) guidelines. The action states that Ladbrokes should have monitored his levels of excessive betting and either contacted the customer, placed restrictions on his account, and verified his source of funds.
Rose has claimed that Ladbrokes made no efforts to check his source of funds or communicate with him about any potential problem gambling issues until his losses reached £100,000 (€117,406). At this point, Ladbrokes confirmed that he had borrowed money to place bets and was gambling more than he could afford. However, Rose claims that he had to place a £1,000 (€1,173) weekly deposit limit on his account by himself and that this was allowed to increase to £20,000 (€23,481) per day within a few months.
Rose then self excluded from all gambling in May of 2016.
Ladbrokes has denied that it breached any contractual terms.
The High Court action comes just a short time after Entain was hit with a record fine of £17 million for ‘repeated and unacceptable’ social responsibility and AML failings. These were license breaches similar to those highlighted in the legal action.
Global gambling industry fines issued in 2022 have reached over $50,000,000.
Image credit: Danrok / CC BY-SA 3.0
Olivia has worked as an editor and writer for major brands across multiple niches. She now focuses on the iGaming and sports betting industries.