32Red Handed £2 Million Fine

The UK Gambling Commission is notorious for not going easy on any offenders, and you may have caught our article on its most recent punishment. For as big a name as it is, its relentlessness at following the rules and keeping others in line is irable; they should be a role model to all in power to enforce some basic guidelines of decency and fairness. All too often the “big boys” are forgiven for not playing by the book.

32Red betting group was not pardoned after being found guilty of failing to protect vulnerable customers and not performing valid and proper money laundering checks. Based on these offenses, the UKGC decided that a fine of £2 million was in order as to rectify the damage done.

The Commission’s investigation found that 32Red allowed a punter who has a gambling addiction to deposit as much as £758,000 between November 2014 and April 2017, without checking for money laundering. According to the investigation, there have been at least 22 previous indicators that the said individual was a problem gambler (like the staff’s ission that he spent too much and his frustration and chasing losses). The casino did not intervene however, and did, instead, award free bonuses to this customer. They did not even check how the player could afford such astronomical losses.

UKGC’s executive director, Richard Watson, commented: “Instead of checking on the welfare of a customer displaying problem gambling behaviour, 32Red encouraged the customer to gamble more – this is the exact opposite of what they are supposed to be doing. Operators must take action when they spot signs of problem gambling and should be carefully reviewing all the customers they are having a high level of with. Protecting consumers from gambling-related harm is a priority for us and where we see operators failing in their responsibility to keep their customers safe we will take tough action.”

Source:

“32Red hit with £2m penalty for sole problem gambler”, bbc.com, June 20, 2018.