Betfred hit with £825,000 fine in the United Kingdom

• Betfred has been hit with a fine in the UKGC over technical failures, not specific player cases
• The regulator has issued a £825,000 fine, expecting remedial action from the license holder
• The UKGC has cited both social responsibility and AML failures as the reason for the penalty

The United Kingdom’s gambling regulator, the Gambling Commission (UKGC), has issued a £825,000 fine against Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Limited, ordering the company to pay for failures linked to social responsibility and anti-money laundering.

Gambling regulator issues latest large fine in the UK

Commenting on the latest regulatory action, the Commission Director of Enforcement, John Pierce, had this to say:

"While the failings identified during the 2024 Compliance Assessment were predominantly technical breaches rather than arising from specific customer examples, they were nevertheless unacceptable, particularly with thresholds appearing too high and insufficiently risk-based when assessed in practice, and deficiencies in some processes and procedures adopted by the Licensee."

The UKGC has enumerated the specific breaches that it discovered to have been an issue. First, the licensee is said to have not been able to fully verify and effectively identify money laundering risks.

"Whilst the licensee utilised machine alerts and daily reports, practices in place at the time of the assessment in 2024 meant the operator was unable to assess overall customer spend and the associated money laundering and terrorist financing risks," the regulator highlighted.

Furthermore, the licensee is said not to have had an effective policy to identify customers who may be subject to financial sanctions, and thresholds for customers’ source of income were too high, set at £15,000 losses and at £125,000 stakes in 365 days.

When it came to social responsibility, the UKGC stipulated that the license did not "adequately" identify spending and association financial indicators of gambling harm for customers who used its B3 gaming machines.

The principle of things matters to the UKGC

When interacting with customers, Betfred is said not to have always looked at specific risk indicators. Not least, the regulator has pointed out the quality of interactions, which did not meet the requirements set out by the watchdog.

"We fully acknowledge the improvements the operator has already made since these issues were identified, and the independent audit will be key to confirming these changes are sustained so that the operator continues to be fully compliant with social responsibility and anti-money laundering requirements," Pierce concluded.

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