British regulator fines Betfred £2.87m
The Gambling Commission has fined Betfred’s Petfre Limited subsidiary.
UK.- The Gambling Commission has issued a £2.87m financial penalty against Petfre Limited, a Gibraltar-based subsidiary of Betfred, for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures. It’s also given the operator an official warning.
Petfre, which operates Betfred.com and Oddsking.com, was found to have breached regulatory rules between October 2019 and December 2020. It was found to have limited controls to prevent high amounts of “high velocity spend” by new customers. It signalled the case of a customer who lost £70,000 in 10 hours of play the day after opening an account.
It also found that Petfre’s safer gambling interaction triggers were set too high and it failed to undertake safer gambling account reviews in a timely manner. One customer received just one customer care interaction in four months despite depositing £320,000 and losing £69,000.
Petfre also failed to put into place appropriate anti-money laundering and terrorist financing policies, procedures and controls. It had insufficient information on customers and no monitoring procedures before initial financial triggers were reached.
Gambling Commission director of enforcement and intelligence Leanne Oxley said: “This is a further example of us taking action to investigate and sanction alarming failures.
“We expect this gambling business and all other licensees to review this case and look closely to see if they need to make further improvements to demonstrate active compliance. Where standards do not improve, tougher enforcement will follow.”
Gambling Commission fines Betway for marketing on West Ham children’s web pages
Earlier this month, the Gambling Commission (UKGC) issued a financial penalty against Betway for marketing material that was shown on children’s web pages on West Ham United’s site. Betway’s logo and a link to its website appeared on a page that offered a teddy bear image for children to colour in.
The regulator said the logo appeared on the page between April 14, 2020 and November 6, 2021. The logo also appeared on the Young Hammers at Home page between October 24 and November 15, 2021.
Other recent fines include a record £17m fine against Entain. The Gambling Commission also fined Smarkets for AML breaches and issued LeoVegas a warning and a £1.2m penalty for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings.
