Betfred fined £2.87m by Gambling Commission

September 29, 2022 World Crime & Legal

The Gambling Commission has fined Betfred £2.87m ($3m) for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.

The UK gambling regulator found that there were ‘no controls in place to prevent large levels of high velocity spend by new customers,’ and that safer gambling triggers were set too high when ‘customers’ spend increased considerably.’

Meanwhile, the business was also guilty of not accounting for money laundering and terrorist financing risks in connection with the business, not following guidance issued by the Commission in regard to the effective implementation of controls, procedures and policies, as well as failing to put the Money Laundering Regulations’ measures in place.

As a part of the fine, the betting operator has further received an official warning from the UK regulator.

Leanne Oxley, Gambling Commission Director of Enforcement and Intelligence, said of the failings: “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.”

Recently, the Commission also fined LeoVegas for similar failings.

It handed down a £1.32m penalty, with Oxley commenting: “We identified this through focused compliance activity and we will continue to take action against other operators if they do not learn the lessons our enforcement work is providing.

“This case is a further example of operators failing to protect customers and failing to be alive to money laundering risks within their business.”