Parent Company of Betfred Fined £240,000 for Slot Game Failures

Petfre, operator of Betfred.com and Oddsking.com, has been fined £240,000 by the Gambling Commission in the UK for breaching industry standards with its slot games.

According to the Commission, Petfre operated a selection of slot games which failed to meet the requirements of the Remote Technical Standards (RTS). The breaches included hosting games which did not display the player’s net position and games which celebrated losses as wins.

Regulations violated

The RTS states a customer’s net position must clearly be displayed, and that gambling systems must not celebrate a return which is less than or equal to the stake gambled. By “celebrate”, the regulations mean the use of auditory or visual effects that are associated with a win.

The Commission was concerned these celebratory effects were being used when players were in an overall losing position, as this may negatively impact a player’s ability to interpret their gameplay accurately and make informed decisions. After the issue was raised by the Commission, the games were removed from Betfred and Oddsking’s sites.

Betfred responds

A Betfred spokesperson told Betting.co.uk: “When we identified the issue with games provided by a third-party supplier, we acted quickly to remove them and reported the issue to the Gambling Commission. This experience has helped us improve and strengthen our safeguards. We’re committed to player protection and ensuring the very best and most transparent experience for all our customers.”

Oddsking was contacted for comment.

John Pierce, Director of Enforcement for the Commission, said: “Features that impair a consumer’s ability to make informed decisions are not appropriate and pose a clear risk.

“While we acknowledge the operator acted swiftly to remove the affected games, this enforcement action should serve as a clear signal to the wider industry to review and strengthen their compliance practices — and to ensure that gameplay is fair and consumers are not exposed to unnecessary risk."

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Petfre has history

This is not the first time Petfre has been fined by the Commission. In 2022, Petfre was ordered to pay £2.87 million for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures. On that occasion, Petfre was found to have no controls in place to prevent large levels of spending from new players. One customer had been allowed to lose £70,000 over a 10-hour period within one day of opening their account.

The offences also included setting safer gambling interaction triggers which were too high and for not taking action in a timely manner when customers’ spend increased considerably.

How this impacts the industry

While the fines are for separate issues, a tier-one UK operator being fined by the Gambling Commission for the second time in the space of four years is very concerning and does not reflect well on the industry.

It is particularly dangerous for players to not be made explicitly aware of their financial position in a game. Online operators are selling an experience to players, but it’s hard to get that message across when game features can have such a negative impact on players.

Other operators should take note of what has happened in this case and ensure they are not potentially found in a similar position with any of their games.