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The United Kingdom Gambling Commission laid down a heavy hand against Ladbrokes Coral recently. They received a huge fine worth £5.9 million, one of the largest ever seen in the online gambling world. The fine comes after a number of violations of the UKGC’s rules on player protection and money laundering.
Seven-figure Fine Hits Ladbrokes Coral
The United Kingdom is generally seen as one of the most important and respectable jurisdictions for online gambling in the world. The main reason for this is that they are very serious about holding software companies and casino operators accountable for breaking their rules.
This accountability recently come in the form of a fine worth £5.9 million against Ladbrokes Coral for not following their anti-money laundering and player protection policies.
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission has listed out the exact reasons for the massive fine as part of a public statement on the matter, and since Ladbrokes Coral is one of the biggest gambling companies in the world, it’s in the best interest of players to know what happened.
The Issues That Led to the Fine
One of the most important parts of the UKGC’s policies that operators have to follow involve helping to avoid situations of money laundering and helping to avoid situations where problem gamblers get themselves into major financial problems.
As such, there are a handful of situations that happened that broke these policies, and it’s these violations that ultimate led to the huge fine.
- Two player accounts were found to have been funded with stolen funds. The funds totaled amounts that should have triggered them to check to see if money laundering was happening, but no investigation was performed.
- They actively noted concerns about whether or not one certain player could afford the amount of money they were losing without any type of intervention.
- A player deposited more than £1.5 million in less than a year, and no investigation happened whatsoever despite red flags for problem gambling behaviors.
- Another player had requested that Ladbrokes Coral stop sending them special offers, but they were still allowed to play despite losing just under six figures inside of 30 months.
These offenses all fall under the same set of issues were enough isn’t being done to protect the players, and that’s something that is taken extremely seriously in the United Kingdom. In fact, the only time we can remember the UKGC handing out fines anywhere near this large is when these types of rules have been violated.
What Happens From Here
Ladbrokes Coral is owned by GVC Holdings, and they’re expected to pay the fine and put some changes in place to make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. It’s the smart move obviously, but it’s also one that will cost them more than just the fine.
As a part of their official response to the fine and the issues that brought it on, they have announced that they will be hiring on forensic accountants and auditors to perform the functions that they have been lacking at.
About Ladbrokes Coral
Ladbrokes is primarily known for their sports betting empire, but they also run online games as well, and that includes an online casino and sportsbook. Players have the opportunity to experience a variety of types of action with all of their favorite ways to gamble found all in the same place, giving them a leg up over a lot of the competition.
This kind of thing is one of the reasons why they’re still one of the biggest names in the online world, but this incident with the fine may have shook public confidence in them. If you’re a player with them and are looking for a new home, then we have several high-end online casinos that we have reviewed that you can trust with licenses in reputable jurisdictions like the United Kingdom.