{"id":777003022,"date":"2023-03-06T12:55:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T15:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777003022"},"modified":"2026-04-23T00:03:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:03:27","slug":"ladbrokes-fined-for-serious-breaches-of-industry-code-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ladbrokes-fined-for-serious-breaches-of-industry-code-in-australia","title":{"rendered":"Ladbrokes fined for serious breaches of industry code in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The NT Racing Commission has fined Ladbrokes $78,540 for three breaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- The Northern Territory Racing Commission<\/strong>, which regulates almost all online betting companies in Australia, has imposed three fines at the maximum penalty rate against Ladbrokes<\/strong>. The fines totalling AU$78,540 were issued for serious breaches of the industry code. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulator found that Ladbrokes failed to limit the damage caused by a financial adviser who stole from his clients for his gambling addiction. Gavin Fineff<\/strong> pleaded guilty to multiple fraud-related offences at the New South Wales district court and is awaiting sentencing. He lost more than AU$8m on sports betting, much of which belonged to friends and clients, some of them elderly and vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commission found Ladbrokes failed to investigate whether Fineff could afford his bets or the source of his money. Instead, the company enticed him to spend more money with bonuses worth AU$528,890.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also:<\/strong> Amused Group fined for emails to self-excluded customers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NTRC stated: “The gambler was actively targeted by a Ladbrokes\u2019 Business Development manager due to his knowledge or the knowledge of his supervisor that the gambler had been sustaining heavy gambling losses with another bookmaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Rather than making any inquiries of substance as to whether the Gambler could afford to gamble to these levels, Ladbrokes encouraged the gambler to open a betting account <\/strong>with it by providing attractive bonus and deposit rebate incentives as an inducement to open a betting account and appears to have been more focused on realising its own profits from the gambler rather than ensuring that it was providing a responsible gambling environment.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NTRC found that Fineff had already sustained multimillion-dollar losses with other bookmakers before he opened an account with Ladbrokes using a pseudonym. It found that the gambler\u2019s true identity was verified by Ladbrokes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entain<\/strong>, Ladbrokes’ London-listed parent company, has accepted the NTRC ruling, which focused on interactions between a former VIP manager and a former customer between 2017 and 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial Counselling Australia’s director of Policy and Campaigns, Lauren Levin<\/strong>, told The Guardian Ladbrokes \u201cfailed its legal and moral duty to protect a customer who was clearly and knowingly at risk.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the NTRC\u2019s judgment was \u201cthe most significant decision of the decade\u201d and could set a precedent for gambling companies being required to investigate whether customers can afford bets before they are accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: <\/strong>ACMA fines BetDeluxe US$34,400 for breaching SMS rules<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NT Racing Commission has fined Ladbrokes $78,540 for three breaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Northern Territory Racing Commission has fined Ladbrokes AU$78,540 for severe breaches of its industry code, specifically failing to implement adequate responsible gambling measures. The breaches involved a VIP customer who gambled over AU$8m, stolen from clients, while being actively enticed with substantial bonuses. This ruling is considered a significant precedent for operator accountability regarding customer affordability checks and source of funds verification.","focusai_entities":"NT Racing Commission, Ladbrokes, Gavin Fineff, New South Wales district court, Amused Group, Entain, Financial Counselling Australia, Lauren Levin, The Guardian, ACMA, BetDeluxe","focusai_location":"Australia, Northern Territory, New South Wales, London","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.97), operator_casino (0.96), product_ux (0.75), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.93), supplier_vendor (0.78), journalist_researcher (0.98)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Ladbrokes Compliance Enhancements?","query":"What specific enhancements to responsible gambling and VIP management frameworks has Ladbrokes (Entain) committed to implementing following this precedent-setting ruling?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent Impact?","query":"How will this ruling by the NT Racing Commission influence the regulatory approach to affordability checks and source of funds verification across other Australian and international iGaming jurisdictions?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-777003022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777003022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777003022"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777003022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777003048,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777003022\/revisions\/777003048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777003022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777003022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777003022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}