Gambling Commission hits Betfred with £900,000 fine
The new penalty comes after the gambling operator’s online division was found to have breached social responsibility requirements.
UK.- The gambling operator Betfred’s online division has agreed to pay a £900,000 penalty to the British Gambling Commission over shortcomings identified in its social responsibility practices. This latest settlement comes after the regulator issued a £825,000 fine to Betfred’s retail arm in December 2025 over similar failings.
Betfred operates through two entities. The online business is run by Petfre (Gibraltar) Ltd, while the retail estate of some 1,400 UK betting shops is operated by Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Ltd.
Following its latest probe, the Gambling Commission concluded that the former did not have sufficient processes in place to identify indicators of harm such as spend, time spent gambling and patterns of spend by utilising automated processes. It also lacked processes to ensure immediate and automated action to minimise harm where strong indicators of harm were identified.
The regulator said the operator deployed a process which meant that when a customer’s account was flagged for a safer gambling review they would not be flagged for a further review for seven days. This resulted in customers exhibiting further indicators of harm not being interacted with as promptly, it said. This included one instance in which a consumer lost £17,900 within 24 hours without an additional interaction.
Betfred has implemented an action plan in order to remedy the failings identified.
John Pierce, Director of Enforcement at the Gambling Commission, said: “Diligent implementation of effective policies and procedures are the cornerstones of safer gambling in Britain. The Commission found that Petfre didn’t have sufficiently effective procedures in place, meaning some customers displaying markers of harm were not contacted quickly enough.
“While the gaps we identified were unacceptable, the licensee acted swiftly to implement interim mitigating controls to address our immediate concerns. They have since delivered an appropriate action plan and taken significant steps to assure the Commission that their current operating model meets our requirements.
“The failure to implement an effective monitoring framework to identify and contact consumers at risk of harm at pace has resulted in a significant regulatory settlement. We expect all operators to learn from this case and read the public statement to ensure they do not make the same mistakes.”
All change at the Gambling Commission
The enforcement action comes amid leadership changes at the British regulator. Former CEO Andrew Rhodes stepped down in April, while policy director Tim Miller is to leave in September.
The regulator’s most recent enforcement action was a £122,835 fine against Stakelogic for product design breaches. It found that the Malta-based supplier had relied on a manual stopwatch to check the time elapsed between spins in several slot products.
Meanwhile, the Gambling Commission has invited industry stakeholders to help identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary burdens in gambling regulation. It’s calling for ideas on how regulatory requirements, guidance and operational processes can be streamlined or improved without harming consumer protections and the licensing objectives of the Gambling Act 2005.
