Internet betting group 32Red has been handed down a hefty £2 million fine for allowing an addicted gambler to bet as well as conducting multiple improper money laundering checks.
The fine was handed down by the UK Gambling Commission, whose investigation revealed that 32Red allowed a punter to deposit £758,000 from November 2014 and April 2017. Those deposits were made multiple times without the proper checks, and the company also ignored 22 incidents that showed that the punter was potentially addicted. The Commission also revealed that the gambler admitted to 32Red staff that he admitted that he was playing too much and was showing frustration while chasing his losses. Despite this, the staff at 32Red allowed him to keep playing.
Commenting on the matter UK Gambling Commission Executive Director Richard Watson said, "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 contact 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."
32Red is owned by Kindred, the same company that runs Unibet. The company accepted the fine and said, "Kindred remains committed to ensuring customers can enjoy gambling in a safe and secure environment."
Comments
The fine is really huge but after al the facts mentioned above it's quite deserved too, in the end they gained £758,000 in profits so that wouldn’t be a whole 2mill losses for them, not that I care about their losses anyway.
Now anyone else should be really careful or they could taste the same medicine.
Oh, it is surprising. Is this big fine just because of the one player who lost miserably?
Then the fine is a punitive damage which is very rare.
Not just because of that single punter but some other violations as well, quite serious too;