British Gambling Commission fines Paddy Power and Betfair for self-exclusion breaches
The British regulator found that the operators had sent promotional notifications to players who were self-excluding.
UK.- The Gambling Commission has slapped a £490,000 penalty on PPB Counterparty Services Limited, which trades as Paddy Power and Betfair. The sanction is for sending promotional push notifications to devices linked to customers who had self-excluded.
The offence dates back to November 21, 2021, when the operator’s app distributed an offer of enhanced odds for bets on an English Premier League football match to devices either linked to accounts that were GAMSTOP registered or devices linked to accounts that were self-excluded with the licensee.
That constituted a breach of rules requiring gambling businesses to take all reasonable steps to prevent any marketing material being sent to a self-excluded customer, and to take steps to remove the name and details of a self-excluded individual from any marketing databases within two days of receiving the completed self-exclusion notification.
Kay Roberts, Gambling Commission executive director of operations, said: “Although there is no evidence the marketing was intentional, nor that all the people with apps saw the notification or that self-excluded customers were allowed to gamble, we take such breaches seriously.
“We would advise all operators to learn from the operator’s failures and ensure their systems are robust enough to always prevent self-excluded customers from being sent promotional material.”
Gambling Commission publishes priorities for evidence-based development
Earlier this week, the Gambling Commission published a paper on evidence gaps and priorities for the three years to 2026. The paper lists priority areas of regulation that the regulator has identified as needing evidence-based development.
The regulator plans to conduct evidence-based development in the areas of gateway gambling products, the variation of gambling experiences and the impact of gambling harms.
