Ladbrokes Casino - Player's Self-Exclusion has not been honored by the sister casino.

Account was closed by me in 2020 under i believe was self exclusion for 5 years.

I tried to login on Saturday and account was suspended and advised to contact support. They confirmed account was closed but claimed not under SE which i dispute.

Their agent stated that i do have a SE with one of the Entain Sister sites and that i should open a new account with Ladbrokes. The SE i applied on the sister site should have been applied across the Entain Groups full list on firms. In the absence of that, the fact their agent knows i'm SE, they should not then be allowing and promoting opening of a new account. They did this and this is not player protection as in knowing of vulnerabilities they imposed no restrictions on the new account.

This allowed a SE customer to recklessly deposit around £750 in a period of 2 hours. My partner who is heavily aware of my SE and previous gambling addictions discovered this the following morning.

A complaint was put to Ladbrokes and evidence to support 3 points raised to them:

As a known SE customer from a site under the Entain Group (so the info was available on their system, the willfully confirm i would need to open a new account on their Ladbrokes site.

As i was SE and it was known to them, when i completed that action last year this should have been applied by them across all groups under them. They are owned by the same group under the same license. They did not do this

In 2020 BETDAQ contacted me advising an issue had caused the deposit limit function to not work and i was as such allowed to deposit more than i should have been able to. They refunded this as payment to me. I highlighted my concerns about my gambling habits and that i was out of control and addicted. This prompted them to close my account which is understandable. As at the time they were part of the Ladbrokes group i feel again that the account closure should have been at that point applied across their group.

i asked at the time BETDAQ closed the account that they specifically limit my deposit level across the brands under the Entain Group. So effectively rather than each site having an individual limit it would be cumulative. I was advised that this was put to their compliance team but no response was made.

Ladbrokes should not have allowed registration of an account when aware a vulnerable customer is SE at a brand under the group. Their verification process should have confirmed that an exclusion was in place and rejected this.

Further to this when i SE last year at a sister site, this should have been applied group wide and prevented any further deposits since then as they were aware of vulnerabilities.

Further to this when BETDAQ were aware of vulnerabilities and as such decided to close my account, this should have been applied group wide and prevented any further deposits since then.

These points were put to the Ladbrokes team who specifically confirmed that they would need to investigate particularly around the self exclusion issue. In response Ladbrokes simply responded by stating that they had reported me to GamProtect and closed all accounts under Entain Group. I agree with this action. They make no reference to any other points put to them around self exclusion and suggesting that in light of this i should open a new account. They refused to respond at all to any self exlclusion points.

The Player Protection team who confirmed this have refused to respond to my email response which advises they have not investigated, considered or responded to my SE points. This is their response which is not acceptable.

They are not operating inline with safer gambling and protection of vulnerable players and are clearly avoiding a compelling point as they cannot defend their actions. Their complaint response and refusal to deal with points is an obvious admission that their actions are against regulations.

Their action of reporting me to GamProtect is an action to cover themself as much as it is to cover me, this is an action that should have been imposed in 2020 and 2023 at least.

The disputed amount is what was deposited after opening the account this week. I may seek a refund of deposits made after the account closure with BETDAQ in 2020, and SE in 2023, this would be a refund of all deposits made to Entain Group after the closure event (s) and for this i have requested a list of deposits that i have made to each operator so i can find the total amount made to them.

If a player circumvents any process to obtain an account and it is later found out this is the case, the casino would suspend the account and funds from that player. This would likely include that if they have registered with an operator and they have found to be self excluded at a sister site, they would have circumvented the process and breached the rules. In this example Ladbrokes have willingly broken the rules and then suspended me after obtaining deposits which i would say is under false pretences.

Dear Kierangrayson,

Thank you very much for submitting this complaint. I'm sorry to hear about your negative experience with Ladbrokes Casino. Please allow me to ask you a few questions to make sure I understand your situation completely.

I would like to request a copy of your account closure request from Ladbrokes Casino that you made in 2020. Can you please send it to my email address which is veronika.l@casino.guru?

Also, I was wondering if you have informed the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) about your wish to self-exclude from all the casinos licensed in the UK? Moreover, have you already self-excluded yourself from GAMSTOP?

I hope we will be able to help you resolve this issue as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your reply.

Best regards

Veronika

Hi Veronika

i have emailed you with the information requested as proof.

i will report matters to the UKGC and confirm that GAMSTOP has been informed.

What is also evident here is if I had attempted to make a withdrawal from the new Ladbrokes account, they would likely have requested documents to verify the account and payment method.

this would have resulted in two outcomes

1. Ladbrokes stating that the account has been found to be a duplicate account after the closure of a previous account with them and under the terms is not allowed.
2. Ladbrokes stating that due to a self exclusion being in place at a sister site they could not verify the account as it is in breach of the terms.

their actions, processes or general negligence is at fault for allowing the unlawful actions of breaching safe gambling and player protection

Hi, thanks for looking into this, after having a good search it seems this firm are the most listed for this exact situation. Seems to be their approach to ignore any complaints and not respond to anyone that’s affected, probably as they can’t defend what they have done and so don’t comment to avoid any liability!

In 2020 when they were made aware about problematic gambling habits and excessive spending and took the (correct) decision to close the account with them at the time. In terms of responsible gambling and player protection and under their legal obligations they should have applied the closures across the entire brand.

In 2023 again after self excluding, they should have applied across the entire group.

In 2024 it demonstrates how poor their conduct really is when in full knowledge of a self excluded account they advise me to open a new account.

what is the process with this now please?

There have been 2 instances in 2019 and 2022 where Ladbrokes have been hit with record fines for failings in ensuring safer gambling.

In 2022 they were quoted as having fallen foul of the rules for a second time and had additional licence conditions imposed on them as part of an improvement notice issued.

It’s clear that despite all this they still fail to ensure safer gambling practices are complied with. I very much doubt that my experience is an isolated one and would be confident that a significant volume of customers will have been impacted and expose a third failing by them.

Their policy must be that if anyone raises an allegation around safer gambling failures or is complaining over Ladbrokes breaching rules, they do not comment or acknowledge any customer at all.

The incident in 2020 where I was subject to failings under safer gambling should be covered by their sanction in 2022. Can you force a claim and compensation under that case?

Hi Veronika

I hope you are well. I’m just chasing an update that’s all. I raised the complaint Tuesday and replied to your email Wednesday and haven’t heard anything back.

I appreciate things take time but I’m not heating anything from Ladbrokes, no responses to me at all despite the serious issues here.

Im guessing you have contacted them, are you awaiting info, waiting for a response, had a response etc. Just really so I’m up to date and know where the matter is at.

thanks K

Dear Kierangrayson,

We have conducted a comprehensive investigation into your inquiry regarding the closure of your Ladbrokes account. Our findings reveal that in 2020, the account was closed under normal circumstances, and not as a result of any self-exclusion related to gambling addiction.

Moreover, we would like to take this opportunity to clarify that there is no available information on the Ladbrokes casino website indicating that self-excluding from one casino will automatically result in self-exclusion from other casinos under the same owner. Therefore, if you did not request Ladbrokes to self-exclude you due to gambling addiction, we are unable to assist you in obtaining any refunds.

Due to the aforementioned reasons, this complaint will now be rejected. Thank you for your understanding, I am sorry we could not be of more help on this occasion. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you run into any issues with this or any other casino in the future.