UK Gambling Commission Fines Betfred and Oddsking £2.9m
Over the past few years the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, or the UKGC, has been penalizing operators with increasing regularity for falling afoul of its rules. The UKGC primarily targets operators when they fail to comply with social responsibility guidelines and anti-money laundering policies.
On September 28, 2022, the UKGC levied a fine of £2.87 million ($3.2 million) against Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures. Petfre Limited is the parent company that operates the popular UK gambling sites betfred.com and oddsking.com. The fines issued were related to failures occurring across both sites, and the UKGC has issued an official warning to Petfre Limited.
What is Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited?
Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited is a company that owns and runs the UK gambling sites betfred.com and oddsking.com. Betfred has a long history of offering betting to UK customers, dating back to a company known as Done Bookmakers which had been in business since 1967.
Done Bookmakers operated for many years until it transitioned to the Betfred name in 2004. Since that time, Betfred has experienced tremendous growth and acquired additional brands, as it now operates around 2000 retail gambling locations.
Betfred.com and Oddsking.com are both owned and operated by Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited. Both websites offer UK customers an assortment of casino gaming and sports betting.
Some of the casino games offered at oddsking.comWhy is Petfre Limited Being Fined?
The UKGC has ordered Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited to pay a total of £2.87 million ($3.19 million) in fines for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures occurring between October 2019 and December 2020. There are a number of failures detailed in the ruling including:
- Lack of controls in place to prevent new customers from spending high amounts quickly. One customer lost £70,000 ($77,865) over a 10-hour period only one day after signing up.
- Safer gambling interaction triggers were set too high. Customers would increase their spending dramatically, and no further reviews were conducted. One customer interacted with customer service after losing £10,200 ($11,364) and no further interaction took place until four months later after the customer had deposited £323,715 ($360,086) and lost £69,371 ($77,165).
- Not taking into account fully the money laundering and terrorist financing (MLTF) risks associated with its business operations.
- Lacking needed policies regarding MLTF risks including not having sufficient information on customers.
- Failure to ensure that its procedures, controls, and policies were implemented well enough. This includes not following guidance issued by the Commission.
- Failure to implement and follow Money Laundering Regulations, which includes failing to identify MLTF risks. The operator failed to provide adequate employee training, failed to implement customer due diligence checks, and did not run the proper source of funds verifications.
The Gambling Commission Director of Enforcement, Leanne Oxley, had this to say regarding the recent enforcement action:
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.
Details of the Action
The Commission investigated and found that Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited failed to comply with multiple licence conditions and regulations. The Commission has decided to impose a financial penalty of £2,873,750 ($3,196,630) under section 121 of the Gambling Act 2005. The Commission has also issued an official warning under section 117(1)(a) of the Gambling Act.
Unfortunately, none of these funds will be returned to problem gamblers who lost or any customers. Instead, the UKGC claims to use the money to help problem gamblers and contribute to responsible gambling efforts, but there is a lack of transparency, and it seems to us that the UKGC may be incentivized to fine operators.
Prior Enforcement
Over the past few years, the UKGC has been enforcing regulatory failures with increasing consistency. Back in August of this year, the largest monetary penalty to date took place when the UKGC fined the Entain Group £15 million ($16.7 million).
Back in 2020, the UKGC fined Caesars around £13 million ($14.4 million), which was the largest enforcement until the recent penalty issued to the Entain Group.
In October 2018, the UKGC fined Paddy Power Betfair over £2.2 million ($2.45 million). Only one month later, the UKGC fined three different operators a total of £14 million ($15.6 million).
Offshore Gambling Available in the UK and Beyond
Many players in the UK may have concerns over the UKGCs enforcement methods and wonder where to safely gamble online. If you reside in the UK and wish to wager online, we recommend you consider signing up with a reputable offshore operator, like Tigergaming.com.
TigerGaming.com offers a multitude of casino games, table games, sports betting, and poker. To learn more about this excellent operator, you are welcome to peruse our extensive TigerGaming review.
For players who live elsewhere around the world, there are plenty of online gambling destinations to play at. You are welcome to explore the guides included below to find out about the best gaming options available for you.