UKGC hits Betfred operator with £900K fine due to regulatory failures

• Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited, the operator of Betfred in the UK, received a hefty fine
• The company was sanction by the country’s gambling regulator, the Gambling Commission, after uncovered social responsibility failures
• John Pierce, the UKGC’s Director of Enforcement, comments

The gambling regulator in the UK, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), has announced a monetary sanction against one licensed gambling operator.

On Tuesday, the Commission confirmed the operator of betfred.com, Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited, is to a pay a hefty £900,000 ($1.2m) fine after an investigation discovered social responsibility failures.

UKGC investigation flags insufficient policies and failures

The significant fine follows a probe by the Gambling Commission which discovered a number of failures, Casino Guru News learned from a press release.

Deficiencies uncovered by the watchdog included insufficient processes in place to ensure "immediate and automated action was taken to minimize harm where strong indicators of harm were identified."

Petfre didn’t have sufficient policies in place to identify "indicators of harm such as spend, time spent gambling and patterns of spend by utilizing automated processes," the UKGC argued.

In addition, the operator failed to deploy a specific process that enabled flagging customer accounts for a second time after an initial review.

The watchdog explained that if a customer’s account was flagged for a safer gambling review, it would not be flagged again for another review in seven days.

The aforementioned practice, in one case, resulted in one customer losing nearly £18,000 ($24,000) in 24 hours without extra interaction.

Only recently, the UKGC asked operators to provide input on reducing regulatory burdens.

This marked a major move as the regulator seeks to ease the regulatory burden for licensed operators while ensuring player protection remains adequate.

Petfre has taken swift actions to address the deficiencies

John Pierce, the UKGC’s Director of Enforcement, addressed the latest sanction.

"Diligent implementation of effective policies and procedures are the cornerstones of safer gambling in Britain," he explained.

Moreover, Pierce added: "The Commission found that Petfre didn't have sufficiently effective procedures in place, meaning some customers displaying markers of harm were not contacted quickly enough."

The Director of Enforcement of the Gambling Commission added that while the deficiencies identified following an investigation were unacceptable, the licensee had taken swift actions to "implement interim mitigating controls to address" the flagged immediate concerns.

At the same time, Pierce said, Petfre delivered an action plan that includes a range of changes to ensure the company’s operating model adheres to the established requirements for player protection.

"The failure to implement an effective monitoring framework to identify and contact consumers at risk of harm at pace has resulted in a significant regulatory settlement," he continued.

Finally, Pierce acknowledged that this hefty monetary sanction can serve as a deterrent for other operators and encouraged every licensee to make sure they don’t make the same mistake.

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