Andrew Wilkie says the recent fine issued to Ladbrokes is unlikely to prevent future misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Australia.- The independent MP Andrew Wilkie <\/strong>has criticised the size of the recent fines imposed on Ladbrokes<\/a>. The operator was fined AU$78,540 by Northern Territory Racing Commission<\/strong> for failing to limit the damage caused by a former customer who stole from clients to fuel his gambling addiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Wilkie said the fine imposed on Ladbrokes would be \u201clost in the company\u2019s margin of error\u201d and that it would not prevent future misconduct. He said such fines could be counterproductive and send the wrong message to the sports betting industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He said fines should hurt a company financially so much that shareholders would ask the board to ensure the same mistakes would not be repeated. He argues that the case demonstrates the necessity of his private member’s bill<\/strong>, which would require gambling companies to report suspicious transactions to the financial crime authority, Austrac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said: \u201cIn the case of Ladbrokes, with my bill, the company would be required to pay all the money that Fineff lost back to the people he stole from.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bill has not been selected for debate in the federal parliament and may pass off the notice paper soon<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Financial Counselling Australia\u2019s director of Policy and Campaigns, Lauren Levin<\/strong>, told The Guardian: “The regulator hasn\u2019t explained why it is treating multiple breaches of Ladbrokes failing to identify problem gambling red flags as a single breach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy hasn\u2019t the regulator treated each ridiculously large deposit that Fineff made as a separate event? On every one of those occasions over the two years, someone made a decision to look away. This has let the business off the hook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February, the Australian Communications and Media Authority<\/strong> (ACMA) fined the Australian online sportsbook BetDeluxe<\/a> AU$50,172 (US$34,400) for breaching rules intended to protect people from spam. Amused Group<\/a>, the operator of the BetNation brand<\/strong>, has been fined AU$13,770<\/strong> for sending a promotional offer to hundreds of customers who had asked to be excluded from betting..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Andrew Wilkie says the recent fine issued to Ladbrokes is unlikely to prevent future misconduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":12571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Independent MP Andrew Wilkie criticizes the Northern Territory Racing Commission's AU$78,540 fine against Ladbrokes for responsible gambling failures, deeming it insufficient to deter future misconduct and advocating for stronger legislative measures like his bill requiring suspicious transaction reporting to Austrac. This incident, alongside other recent fines against BetDeluxe and Amused Group, highlights ongoing concerns regarding regulatory enforcement efficacy and operator compliance within the Australian iGaming market.","focusai_entities":"Andrew Wilkie, Ladbrokes, Northern Territory Racing Commission, Financial Counselling Australia, Lauren Levin, Austrac, Australian Communications and Media Authority, BetDeluxe, Amused Group, BetNation","focusai_location":"Australia, Northern Territory","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.8), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Efficacy?","query":"What specific changes to the Northern Territory Racing Commission's enforcement framework or penalty guidelines are being considered to address criticisms regarding the adequacy of fines for repeat responsible gambling breaches?"},{"label":"Impact of Wilkie's Bill?","query":"Should Andrew Wilkie's private member's bill pass, what would be the estimated financial and operational impact on Australian iGaming operators, particularly concerning mandatory restitution and enhanced Austrac reporting requirements?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[23911,233],"class_list":["post-777003073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777003073","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=777003073"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777003073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777003094,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777003073\/revisions\/777003094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777003073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777003073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777003073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}