Betway has become the latest online bookmaker to have fallen foul of the Gambling Commission and has been hit with a record fine of £11.6m for failing to protect gambling addicts and to prevent people betting with stolen money. Mega888 slot png.

Campaigners calling for betting license to be withdrawn

Campaigners had called for Betway’s licence to be suspended pending further investigation after the industry regulator found one big-spending customer, alleged to have been allotted VIP status, deposited over £8m and lost more than £4m over a four-year period.
Another customer lost £187,000 in two days after Betway failed to carry out adequate checks, the Gambling Commission said.

A probe by the commission found that Betway allowed £5.8m to flow through its business which was, or could reasonably be suspected to be, proceeds of crime.

Betway fine is biggest in history

Betway was found to have not carried out the required checks, and the fact that the failures stemmed between November 2014 and November 2017 warranted the higher fine amount. One of these customers deposited more than £8 million and lost £4 million during the period, and the regulator found 51 times that Betway should have intervened with the. Facebook0Tweet0LinkedIn0 Betway is paying a high price for getting on the U.K. Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) bad side. The firm has been ordered to pay a record £11.6m settlement for accepting stolen funds and ignoring cases of gambling addiction. The regulator cites an instance where Betway failed to do their due dillgence on a “VIP” customer who deposited.

The Betway case is the largest penalty package against a gambling firm ever prosecuted in the UK and comes as regulators ramp up pressure on the industry to do more to protect customers.

Under particularly close scrutiny is the widespread use of VIP schemes which companies have been using to ensure customers who gamble large sums keep betting.

These customers are assigned relationship managers who offer bonuses and encourage them to gamble if they’ve not done so for some time. Many of these customers have been found to have a gambling problem and in several cases have been found to be using stolen money to fund their habit.

Beltway Fine Wine And Spirits Towson

Other large fines recently meted out by the Gambling Commission to bookmakers and their parent companies include £7.1m for Daub Alderbey in 2018 with the Ladbrokes Coral Group forced to cough up £5.9m last year. William Hill were fined upwards of £6.2m in 2018 for breaching social responsibility and money laundering rules.

The Gambling Commission clearly means business in its efforts to clean up the UK gambling industries and other bookmakers will now be examining their company policy and methodology to see if they are also vulnerable to censure.

The UK Gambling Commission continues its series of penalty-imposing actions, with the latest operator, Betway, fined a record £11.6 million for failure with regards to gambling addiction protection and player source of funds checks.

The gambling regulator in the UK meted the severe punishment to Betway, after it had found out serious violations in dealings with high-spendingVIP clients that meant the operator handled around £5.8 million of suspected criminal proceeds, and the gambling Commission is now returning the money to the victims.

In one of these VIP cases, Betway allowed a customer to deposit over £8 million, in the span of four years, lose £4 million and in the meantime having his account flagged 20 times as a potential risk, only in each of these occasions for the staff to accept the client’s word as evidence of the source of the funds. Even the board of directors of the company, when the case was referred to them, allowed the gambler to continue, with the actual closure of the client’s account happening after the police’s intervention.

Another client was allowed to deposit £1.6 million and lose more than £700,000, in a period of 3 years, despite being unemployed, and Betway failed to verify customer employment status due to reliance on open source information that confirmed the client could afford the losses.

A violation of the customer self-exclusion policy was found when a client made a series of deposits totaling £494,000 into 11 Play buffalo slot machine. different accounts, after that customer had previously signed up to exclude from gambling, a glaring example of gambling addiction behavior.

Another VIP client deposited and lost £187,000 in just 2 days, without being asked by Betway’s staff about the source of the money.

“The actions of Betway suggest there was little regard for the welfare of its VIP customers or the impact on those around them. As part of our ongoing programme of work to make gambling safer, we are pushing the industry to make rapid progress on the areas that we consider will have the most significant impact to protect consumers” Richard Watson, Executive Director, UK Gambling Commission.

Betway will pay £5.8 million back to the victims of the crimes committed by its customers, plus another £5.8 million to the Gambling Commission that will be spent to reduce gambling addiction. Betway accepted to pay the penalty and improve their existing processes.

“Betway takes full responsibility for the small number of historic cases which have led to this settlement. Rakin bacon free slot game. We have fully cooperated with the investigation and will take further proactive steps to ensure all recommendations and findings are implemented” Anthony Werkman, CEO, Betway.

Betway Fine Enquiry

The latest imposed financial penalty by the UKGC is almost 4 times the amount of the previous one, the £3 million fine meted to Mr Green, an online gaming company owned by William Hill, and the GC is determined to make the gambling environment safer in times when the society shows sensitivity on the matters.