Yahoo Finance Bookmaker 32Red fined £2m for encouraging problem gambling
The gambling watchdog has fined 32Red £2m after it found the bookmaker offered bonuses to problem gamblers.
32Red, which was sold to Swedish gambling company Kindred last year for £175.6m, admitted to a string of failures following an investigation by the Gambling Commission.
Between November 2014 and April 2017 a customer was able to deposit £758,000 with 32Red but social responsibility and anti-money laundering checks were not performed. And in at least 22 incidents, the probe found 32Red failed to identify customers were problem gamblers and offered them free bonuses to keep them wagering bets.
The Gambling Commission’s largest ever penalty was issued to 888 Limited last August. The online gambling company was fined £7.8m for serious failings in handling vulnerable customers. The second-largest penalty went to William Hill, which was fined £6.2m in February for breaching anti-money laundering and social responsibility regulations.
Richard Watson, an executive director at the Gambling Commission criticised 32Red for doing “the exact opposite of what they are supposed to be doing”.
He said: “Instead of checking on the welfare of a customer displaying problem gambling behaviour, 32Red encouraged the customer to gamble more.”
The investigation also showed that 32Red failed to perform affordability checks on customers.
A spokesman for 32Red’s owner said: “Kindred accepts the penalty and recognizes the raised standards required by the GBGC [Gambling Commission].
“Kindred is working hard across all teams and brands to consolidate and improve business processes, making use of best practices from all areas of the business.
"One such initiative was the integration of the behavioral monitoring system PS-EDS on acquired platforms, but in a changing and complex landscape work remains to be done.”
Mr Watson said that gambling operators "must take action when they spot signs of problem gambling and should be carefully reviewing all the customers they are having a high level of contact with".
He added: “Protecting consumers from gambling-related harm is a priority for us and where we see operators failing in their responsibility to keep their customers safe we will take tough action.”
