A gambling firm has been hit with a record £17 million fine after failing to apply safeguards.
Entain plc – which owns Ladbrokes, Coral and Bwin – received the largest ever penalty from the Gambling Commission after “serious failures” were discovered.
The group risks losing its licence if it breaches any more rules after it was fined just under £6m in 2019 for a previous infringement.
‘Unacceptable failures’
Andrew Rhodes, Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, said an investigation found “completely unacceptable anti-money laundering and safer gambling failures”.
The Commission highlighted several cases including one gambler who was allowed to set up an account and deposit £30,000 on an Entain site despite being blocked from betting on sister site Coral.
Another person who was known to live in social housing was allowed to deposit £186,000 on a gambling site over a six-month period.
And a third gambler deposited £742,000 in just over a year without any appropriate checks being made.
Pales in comparison
Campaigners said the fine was too small for a company like Entain which has reported annual profits over £840 million since 2020.
Ronnie Cowan MP, Vice-Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Related Harm, said: “Fining companies worth billions doesn’t solve anything. Giving a chief executive prison time may be the only way to make the industry change its ways.”
Chairwoman of the group, Carolyn Harris MP, added: “This fine shows gambling companies cannot be trusted to regulate themselves and protect vulnerable players.”
Delayed reforms
Last month, Lord Butler of Brockwell urged the Government to address gambling harms and “make a positive change” to countless lives.
The crossbench Peer said: “every day that reform is delayed, gambling addiction across the country fuels homelessness, unemployment, imprisonment, depression, alcohol dependency and, most seriously, suicide”.
The Government was set to outline an array of reforms to the Gambling Act 2005 but this has been delayed until after the appointment of a new Conservative party leader.