Betfred to pay £3.25 million for regulatory failures

Betfred has agreed a £3.25 million regulatory settlement with the Gambling Commission over anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures at its betting shops in the United Kingdom.

The bookmaker was found to have breached regulations between January 2021 and December 2022 by failing to conduct appropriate risk assessments and failing to interact with customers who may have been experiencing harm.

The Gambling Commission found that Betfred had set too high a threshold for triggering financial alerts - £250,000 staked in 365 days – and that it failed to consistently obtain appropriate Know Your Customer (KYC) identification and Source of Funds (SoF) documentation from customers when its thresholds were met.

This allowed one customer to reach a net loss position of £61,000 within a four-month period with no appropriate KYC being conducted, while another customer was allowed to stake £429,222 and lose £120,353 within an 11-month period based on uncorroborated open-source information.

Betfred also failed to minimise the risk of customers experiencing harm because it had insufficient controls in place to protect new customers, and to monitor high velocity spend and duration of play.

In one example cited by the Commission, Betfred allowed a customer to stake £517,499 - almost his entire net worth - within a two-month period. This was based on the customer’s winning position during that time and the view that the customer was a professional poker player. In another instance, a customer deposited £337,029 and lost £19,336 across a total of 1,375 bets, with only 12 interactions recorded with the customer, despite signs of potential harm.

As part of the regulatory settlement, Done Bros (Cash Betting) (trading as Betfred) will pay £3.25 million in lieu of a financial penalty, which will be directed towards socially responsible purposes, including a divestment of £1.05 million.

The Commission said the size of the penalty reflects the serious nature of the breaches identified, as well as the extent of steps taken by Betfred to remedy the breach.

“In recent years there’s been a public focus on online gambling but this case illustrates how important it is for us to continue our drive to raise standards across the whole industry,” said Kay Roberts, executive director of operations at the Commission.

“Gambling is a legitimate leisure activity enjoyed safely by millions but it is vital that every single operator – either online or offline - has in place effective safeguards to prevent harm or crime.”