The UK Gambling Commission set to make Gambling to be Safer and Fairer

The UK gambling commission intends to find measures that will make gambling safer and fairer. To make this possible, the organization has come up with a report called, “raising standards for consumers.”

The report covers self-exclusion, customer interaction, unfair terms, anti-money laundering and illegal gambling activities. Operators are required to pay close attention to the lessons that are set in the report. They need to find ways to keep their consumers safer and to make the gambling activities fairer.

According to Neil McArthur, the regulator’s boss not nearly enough has been done so far. “There is also more that can be done to ensure that customers are treated right and that they are kept safe while they gamble. I want to make changes that will start with the companies at the top.”

“We need to make sure that we use the power we have to drive a culture that requires operators to comply with the right rules from the beginning and it needs to protect consumers and drive profits,” he continued.

The operators 32Red Company was the most recently penalized for not complying with these regulations. They had to pay $2.62 million because they were found guilty of money laundering and not offering their customers adequate protection from gambling-related problems. William Hill was also fined in February £6.2 million for the same reasons.

The second largest punishment dished out by the commission was £ 7.8 million to 888 because they failed to protect their customers and their money.

Actions such as this one indicate the steps that the UK government and other regulatory bodies, advisory group and charities have taken to point out and find solutions to the problems in the industry. Mainly, these bodies are dedicated to making sure that underage people do not start gambling.

Recently the UK advertising standards authority recently enforced child protection so that the gambling sites would not be accessible to young children. For instance, the coral gambling adverts that include leprechaun were banned. The animated advertisements were found to be appealing to the under 18 children. Online slot adverts were also banned because they may pop up while an underage person is on the internet and they may be tempted to sign up.

The gambling industry in the UK continues to grow. As of September 2017, the industry has 106,366 employees. It also made £13.9 billion between April 2016 and March 2017. The statistics have also shown that up to 95% of all gamblers often gamble at home.

Companies need to put measures that allow them to notice unusual gambling patterns from their customers. The unusual patterns may be due to money laundering or people facing financial issues as a result of feeding their gambling problems for a long time.

Firms are required to do full background checks of their customers. These checks should show how the customers are getting their money and whether they can afford to pay their bills and gamble the amounts they put forward.

Operators have to put the welfare of their customers first and have an overall financial view of their customer’s right from the beginning. The companies need to check the deposits being put in carefully. If they question the amounts deposited, they need to limit the players or stop them from playing altogether.

The commission works with the advertising standards authority to ensure that operators who defy the rules put in place are fined for targeting vulnerable customers. With the right treatment, customers will not lose their financial stability.

 

 

32Red Gambling Company Hit with £2M Penalty for Failing to Safe Guard A Problem Gambler

The Swedish-owned betting firm, 32Red has been slapped with a £2 million fine. This is due to its failure to protect a problem gambler and also conferring on his VIP status.

32REDThe commission that is charged with the responsibility of regulating gambling found the company complicit in facilitating excessive gambling by one of its clients. In total, the commission noted, there were 22 incidents in which the behaviors of the said client should have been questioned and investigated but never happened.

32Red, it is alleged, allowed the said problem gambler to deposit a whopping £758,000 between 2014 and 2017. This amounted to an average of around £45,000 per month notwithstanding the fact that the said client had a monthly salary of just £2,150!

The betting firm did attempt to defend itself though. It gave evidence to the effect that the problem gambler in question had a monthly income of around £13,000. This evidence was however refuted by the regulatory agencies on the grounds that it was incredible.

Moreover, 32Red it is said only reviewed the account of the said problem gambler after he won a 7-digit amount which he quickly gambled yet again. This served to prove beyond reasonable doubts that the betting firm was, in fact, encouraging the person to gamble more, rather than abetting the practice, as should have been the case.

In light of these, the betting firm was slapped with a further £709,046 fine for the divestment of the financial gain, £1.3m payment to the National Responsible Gambling Strategy, and a further £15,000 to cover the overall costs of the investigation.

While justifying these moves, the commission’s executive director Mr. Richard Watson, had this to say, ‘Operators have to see to it that they take appropriate steps whenever they spot any signs of problem gambling. As such, they have to promptly review all the customers that they do have a high level of contacts with.’

The betting firm did admit its culpability when confronted. Furthermore, an independent third party did also audit the procedures, controls, and policies of the Anti-money Laundering commission. The recommendations made were also accepted and adopted.

There were concerns as to whether the problem gambler may have stolen the money. The commission was swift to respond though that there have been no signs or credible evidence to that effect as of now. Here is what the commission’s spokesman had to say:

‘We are not aware of the source of the gamblers wealth as of now. This is because the operator did not fulfill its mandate to the commission in conformity to the existing anti-money laundering obligations. We, therefore, are unable to comment further on the issue.’

To prevent a recurrence of the same issue in future, a complete review of all the existing active customers was effected. The affected company decided to put in place a behavior monitoring system. This is to detect and respond promptly to any such suspicious activities in future.

An independent third-party audit of AML policies, procedures, and controls with recommendations accepted and implemented. The affected company also ordered a full review of all its active customers against the revised policies.

The regulatory authority also decided to implement a raft of measures to forestall the recurrence of these problems in future. These include the introduction of a group Anti-Money Laundering or Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) policy and the integration of the various betting firms to a single platform across companies, among others.

These measures will make it easier for the various operators in the field of gambling to monitor the behaviors of their clients. They will find it easier to share data and investigate any suspicious activities as well. With these measures in place, the likelihood of similar incidents taking place later is very minimal.