The Great Britain Gambling Commission has ordered Done Bros, trading as Betfred, to pay £3.25m for failing to adhere to social responsibility and anti-money laundering regulations.
The operator will make the payment in lieu of a financial penalty and as part of a regulatory settlement with the Commission.
An investigation by the commission, as well as an additional regulatory review found a list of failings at Betfred between January 2021 and December 2022.
Failings included the implementation of AML policies, procedures and controls, as well as deficiencies in social responsibility policies, procedures, controls and practices.
Betfred’s failings in social responsibility included a lack of control to protect new consumers and failed to monitor extortionate spend and duration of play.
Betfred was also found to have made assumptions that users were not at risking as they were ‘winning’ regularly. In one case, the operator failed to carry out safer gambling interactions on a customer who staked £517,499 just two months.
A variety of licences and regulations were breached, which included licence condition 12.1.1 (1), which requires an assessment on the risk of a business being used for terrorist financing and money laundering.
The regulator said Betfred did not take into account its latest guidance and did not show how every risk to its business was being thought about.
The Commission also flagged paragraphs 2 of the licence condition 12.1.1. Paragraph 2 highlights the need to have the correct policies around anti money laundering nd terrorist financing.
The regulator claimed that there was no sign of illegal expenditure however, Betfred breached the licence condition.
As the investigation came to a close, the Commission reached a regulatory settlement with Betfred, an organisation with just under 2000 physical stores and a popular online gambling app.
This featured the £3.25m payment, including a divestment of £1.05m. Betfred also agreed to cover the Commissions investigative costs, as well as for details of the case to be published.
The Commission’s executive director of operations, Kay Roberts, revealed why this action was needed and how the safety of gambling continues to be the priority.
Roberts said: “In recent years there’s been a public focus on online gambling but this case illustrates how important it is for us to continue our drive to raise standards across the whole industry,”
“Gambling is a legitimate leisure activity enjoyed safely by millions but it is vital that every single operator – either online or offline – has in place effective safeguards to prevent harm or crime.”
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