Paddy Power Betfair Fined £2m for Social Responsibility Failures

Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) has agreed to pay a £2 million penalty to the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) after a series of social responsibility failures were flagged.

A thorough investigation carried out last year revealed that there weren’t suitable measures put in place to protect vulnerable customers.

The four operators that trade under PPB - PPB Entertainment, PBB Counterparty Services Ltd, Betfair Casino, and TSE Malta LP - were implicated in the report. Owned by Flutter Entertainment, PPB were reprimanded for failing to stop problem gambling quickly enough.

Falling well short of the mark

In its investigation, which covered April to May 2024, the Gambling Commission noted several instances where PPB fell considerably short of the mark. Among the social responsibility shortcomings identified were as follows:

• The systems the licensees had in place weren’t sensitive enough to pick up on indicators of harm. One customer deposited £12,000 over 15 days before being flagged for review. Another deposited £25,000 in 25 days before PPB intervened.
• Another customer lost £12,300 in the space of five weeks before PPB took action.
• Another customer staked £86,000 over 16 days, and they lost £6,000. However, PPB didn’t review the account despite the large betting outlay.
• One customer showed high spiking levels in betting, with one session over a 17-day period lasting over seven hours, where over 300 bets were made worth £20,000. Only when the customer hit a loss trigger was their account manually reviewed.

Gambling Commission reaction

Ultimately, the Commission were disappointed with PPB’s behaviour. At a time when UK betting sites have come under more scrutiny, the Commission wanted to remind PBB of its duties.

In a statement, John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, said:

“This £2 million statement reflects the seriousness of the failings identified and the importance of meeting social responsibility and customer interaction standards.

“Our compliance assessment in 2024 uncovered examples where interactions fell far short of what is required. These failings should never have occurred. While the licensees co-operated fully with the investigation, this immediate response is the minimum we expect from operators where serious shortcomings are identified.

“Operators must ensure systems to identify and address harm work effectively and at the right time. Where we find failings, we will act decisively to protect players.”

Under fire again

This isn’t the first time that PPB has been punished by the Gambling Commission. In 2023, PPB was fined £490,000 for unacceptable marketing techniques where push notifications were sent to customers who had self-excluded.

The Commission has been hot on the case recently in identifying social responsibility and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) failures across the industry. Earlier this month, Betfred was hit with an £825,000 penalty for breaches of the Commission code of conduct.

Moving on

While PPB were keen to draw a line under the episode, they stopped short of apologising for their mistake. However, they wanted to emphasise that they have now incorporated new systems to protect customers moving forward.

A spokesperson for Flutter’s UK and Ireland business said:

“Flutter takes its safer gambling responsibilities incredibly seriously and we firmly believe that we lead the industry in player protection.

“Our controls have evolved significantly and we recently introduced a next generation customer safety platform, with the vast majority of checks now happening in real-time.

“As such, we are confident that the issues highlighted by the commission in its public statement would not be repeated today.”