Ladbrokes Owner Entain Group Nailed With £17 Million in Fines

Entain Group Lands Two UKGC Fines Totaling £17 Million

For a variety of reasons, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission is often considered one of the most important regulatory bodies in the world of online gambling. One of the biggest reasons for this is how serious they are about their policies. While some other regulatory entities have been criticized for lax enforcement, the UKGC is on the opposite side of things.

A recent example of how serious they are with enforcement has come at the Entain Group’s expense.

This has come in the form of two fines that add up to be worth £17 million. Overall, this is one of the largest (if not the single largest) total fine to ever hit an online gambling company at once due to regulatory non-compliance. It’s a pretty interesting situation from a lot of different angles. However, one thing it does show is how serious they are about protecting players.

Where Did These Massive Fines Come From?

This punishment as a whole is actually broken up into two parts. One part is a £14 million fine for the Entain Group entity as a whole. Additionally, another portion is £3 million levied toward Ladbrokes in particular. This is noteworthy because of the strong position and reputation Ladbrokes has in the industry.

Overall, a variety of different rules and policies weren’t followed. In turn, these fines are handling all of these failures as well as a plan on getting things back on track. Some of the infractions include the following.

Various Infractions

On the social responsibility side of things, they had the following infractions:

• Not interacting quickly enough with players that showed certain signs of problem gambling
• Allowing players who were blocked on one brand for problem gambling to play on an associated brand they also owned with no restrictions
• Players not being flagged for review to make sure they had sufficient income and means for the amounts they were wagering and/or losing

Other infractions under the anti-money laundering guidelines included these issues:

• Proper risk assessment protocols weren’t followed to check in on potential money laundering issues
• Large deposits were accepted without proper checks on the sources of the income
• Allowing players to wager larger amounts than what’s typically allowed without proper monitoring

Additionally, as you can tell from the fines levied, the UKGC takes all of the above very seriously.

Being Serious About Protecting Players

If you’ve ever wondered why an online gambling license from the United Kingdom is such a big deal, that’s why. They have very strict guidelines on how they want things handled to protect players. However, when a company breaks those rules, they bring down the hammer particularly hard. Accountability is the name of the game, and they bring it on a serious level.

Additionally, they also offer plans to get companies back on track. For example, their license is now under certain conditions that will help to steer them forward. This will help to put them in a direction where they can serve players safely and without incident.

For one, a member of their board has to be appointed to oversee an improvement plan specifically for these issues. However, on top of that, a third party will be auditing them within the next year to make sure they’re hitting the targets that they need to hit.

This allows everything to get on track to the way it needs to be for players. Additionally, the fines themselves largely go to funds for helping with problem gambling programs. As you can see, the whole thing is set up to make sure that as much as possible is put into protecting players and providing the resources needed to give people help who need it.