Northern Territory fines Ladbrokes nearly $80,000

Ladbrokes, a licensed sportsbook in Australia, has been handed down an AU$78,540 fine by a state regulator, the NT Racing Commission, ABC News reported. The penalty was issued after a detailed investigation concerning a player who used the sportsbook to gamble and ended up losing AU$758,510.

It later transpired that the gambler, Gavin Fineff, had lost a total of AU$8m of client and friends’ money because of his gambling addiction, betting across a fleet of sportsbooks in the country. The part that concerns Ladbrokes has to do with how the company interacted with Fineff from the start.

According to the NT Racing Commission, the sportsbook had failed to approach the gambler from the onset and did not verify the source of his wealth. The decision explained that Fineff was in fact contacted by Ladbrokes without the company and the gambler previously interacting after a member of the staff was tipped about Fineff’s gambling habits at another regulated sportsbook.

While Ladbrokes was reprimanded by the NT Racing Commission over its failure to intervene and inquire into Fineff’s behavior, the regulator did not believe that Ladbrokes had in fact broken any rules when it comes to the processing of the bets. In other words, the NT Racing Commission sees no reason why the bets should be revoked, but it has still issued a fine regarding the failure to interact with the gambler.

Fineff ended up going through a total of AU$17.5m during his near-two-year time with Ladbrokes. He ended up posting a loss of AU$758,510 at the end. The commission also exonerated Ladbrokes in another matter, saying that Ladbroke’s interaction with Fineff was not sufficient for the sportsbook to notify the police that the source of wealth of the gambler might have originated from illegitimate dealings.

The case has had a strong public reverberation. Fineff has already pleaded guilty to the 12 charges against him, including financial advantage by deception, and will be sentenced in a New South Wales court in March. Meanwhile, Entain Australia – the parent company of Ladbrokes – has said that the company accepted the ruling.

A spokesperson said that it had invested heavily since 2019 to ensure that cases such as Fineff's do not repeat themselves. Financial Counselling Australia’s Lauren Levin congratulated the regulator on the important decision by the regulator but said that more needs to be done. Meanwhile, the NT Racing Commission has confirmed that fines for the gambling sector are set to increase.

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