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The United Kingdom is sometimes known for handing out fines like hot cakes, and Betfred is the latest to get hit with one. Their operator company Petfre has been fined almost £3 million in another episode of “The UKGC Holds Casinos Accountable” saga.
UKGC Levies £2.87 Million Fine on Betfred Operator Petfre
No matter where you look in the industry, almost everyone says the same thing about the United Kingdom. The message is typically that they have the strictest regulatory body of any regulated market in the world. Most people would see that as a good thing. However, the company that operates Betfred Casino, namely Petfre, might feel sore about it right now.
That’s because they recently got hit with a fine from the UK Gambling Commission. It comes to a total of about £2.87 million.
While that’s not the biggest fine they’ve handed out in general, it’s obviously a pretty sizable chunk of change. Down below, we’ll get into more detail about what they did to get hit with such a fine. Additionally, it’s important to know that these types of fines are one way they hold casino operators accountable.
Players should know that large fines like this usually come from a combination of two types of issues. Most of the time, it’s for a combination of anti-money laundering guidelines not being follows and social responsibility guidelines being ignored. That’s the case here as well.
Social Responsibility Issues
A couple of specific instances were cited when it came to the UKGC’s accusations in the social responsibility arena. For one, they allege that nothing was in place to prevent a whole lot of spending by new accounts. Additionally, these accounts are usually put under scrutiny initially before means testing and other checks are put in place. Essentially, they want to make sure that they’ve done their due diligence to help prevent people from spending more than they can afford.
In one specific case, for example, a player lost around £70,000 in a space of about ten hours. However, the main issue is that the account was only about a day old. That’s clearly against the Gambling Commission’s guidelines.
Anti-money Laundering Issues
Most of what the UKGC had to say was on the money laundering side of things. The accusations start off with a general negligence of the risks of money laundering in the first place. From there, they continued to talk about the general lack of policies to help prevent this type of thing. That includes a lack of information on their players as well as no monitoring being put in place when certain criteria were met.
The Gambling Commission went on to point out failures in a few other systems in the company. That included training employees, doing due diligence on the source of player funds and so on. Overall, if what the UKGC says is correct, it seems like they were more or less pretending that the whole concept just didn’t exist. While it would seem mind-boggling to be the case, that appears to be what is being suggested here.
Taking Care of the Players
Some people would attack the United Kingdom Gambling Commission over these types of fines. We have to disagree with most of that criticism. While we definitely have some criticism of some of their decisions, we think they’re totally in the right here, provided that the accusations are correct. Operators agree to a variety of measures when taking on their license. Additionally, this includes being fined if they do not meet the standards laid out.
Along these lines, it would be difficult to find fault with the UKGC if all of this happened as listed. However, in any event, it leads to a better situation of taking care of players. Preventing money laundering and helping with social responsibility are both great for the people who are enjoying the games, and it’s their needs that have to come first.