Betfred Fined £900k After Missing Social Responsibility Policies Again

Betfred’s online operator has been ordered to cough up £900,000 by the United Kingdom Commission (UKGC) after missing a series of social responsibility licensing requirements.

The thorough investigation laid the blame squarely at the feet of Betfred’s digital owner, Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited, which is one of the two listed subsidiaries connected to the revered UK betting site, while the other part is run by the Done brothers. A compliance assessment flagged serious shortcomings within the business’s policies and procedures.

What did the UKGC report uncover?

Among the findings that jumped out from the report was Petfre being criticised for not reacting quickly enough to identify high-risk customers. The failures identified were as follows:

• Not having sufficient processes in place to identify indicators of harm, such as spend, time spent gambling and patterns of spend by utilising automated processes.
• Not having processes in place to ensure immediate and automated action was taken to minimise harm where strong indicators of harm were identified.
• Deploying a process which meant that when a customer’s account was flagged for a safer gambling review, they would not be flagged for a further review for seven days.

Within the latter point, there were “indicators of harm” which surfaced where customers were either neglected or not dealt with as promptly as they should have been. The UKGC uncovered an instance where a player lost £17,900 in the space of 24 hours, but no additional interaction or support was offered.

Another black mark placed on Betfred’s record

Once again, Betfred has incurred the wrath of the UKGC. Last October, Petfre was fined £240,000 for breaching industry standards concerning its slot titles.

And just two months later, the betting giant was fined £825,000 which related to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and social responsibility infringements. The enforcement action was taken against the Done brothers subsidiary of Betfred, who control the company’s large retail estate.

Exploring aggravating and mitigating factors

In considering the size of the financial penalty levied, the UKGC took into account a couple of aggravating factors. In its summary, the UKGC noted that the licensee had been subject to regulatory action in the past, and the Commission had flagged instances where the business had not met targets.

Meanwhile, according to the UKGC, the licensee “fully co-operated” with the investigation and put an action plan in place to prevent a repeat situation. In terms of the penalty, Petfre was ordered to pay £900,00, but they also had to contribute to the costs of the UKGC investigating the case.

UKGC sends a timely reminder

Despite praising the steps taken by Petfre to put safeguards in place to protect customers in the wake of the investigation, the UKGC reminded the business of its duties moving forward.

John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, said:

“Diligent implementation of effective policies and procedures are the cornerstones of safer gambling in Britain. The failure of Petfre to implement an effective monitoring framework to identify and contact customers at risk of harm at pace has resulted in a significant regulatory settlement.

“We expect all operators to learn from this case and read the public statement to ensure they do not make the same mistakes.”

After a period of dormancy, the UKGC has picked things up again on the enforcement front. Betfred’s latest infringement followed the news last week that Stakelogic was hit with a £122,835 fine by the British regulator for running its slot games too quickly for its players.