Betway to pay record £11.6M UKGC penalty

The Gambling Commission’s investigation exposed failings linked seven of Betway’s VIP customers

UK.- Online betting firm Betway has been hit with a record £11.6M (U$S 14.9M) fine after the UK Gambling Commission said the firm failed to properly protect customers and carry out money-laundering checks.

The Gambling Commission’s investigation said failings were linked to dealings with seven of Betway’s high-spending customers. The penalty package is the biggest applied to a UK gambling firm to date.

“The operator failed to carry out source of funds checks on a ‘VIP’ customer who deposited over £8m and lost over £4m during a four-year period. In another, Betway failed to carry out effective social responsibility interactions with a customer who deposited and lost £187,000 in two days,” the Commission said.

“As a result of a lack of consideration of individual customers affordability and source of funds checks, the operator allowed £5.8m of money to flow through the business which has been found, or could reasonably be suspected to be, proceeds of crime,” the Commission added.

Commission Executive Director Richard Watson said that the operator’s actions “suggest there was little regard for the welfare of its VIP customer” and explained the Commission was trying to prevent these situations.

“As part of our ongoing programme of work to make gambling safer, we are pushing the industry to make rapid progress on the areas that we consider will have the most significant impact to protect consumers,” he added.