Ladbrokes and Coral Owner Slapped with £17M Fine

Operators May Face Prison if Rules Are Ignored!

Entain Group, owner of LC International Limited which runs 13 websites including Ladbrokes and Coral, has been ordered to pay a massive £17m fine by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), £14m for failures at its online business and £3m for its failings at its Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming Limited operation which runs more than 2,700 gambling shops across the UK.

Along with the hefty fine, additional license conditions will be added to ensure a business board member oversees an improvement plan. Plus, a third-party audit will review its compliance with the License Conditions and Codes of Practice. Social responsibility failures included:

• A customer was able to deposit more than £230K in an 18-month period with the only interaction from the operator was via live chat. The customer was displaying signs of problem gambling with extended periods of gambling overnight.
• Allowing a customer to open multiple accounts. One customer who was banned from Coral for spending £60K in a 12-month period without providing SOF was then immediately able to open an account with Ladbrokes with a £30K deposit the same day.
• A shop customer who was able to stake £29,372 and lose £11,345 in a single month was not referred for a safer gambling review.
• Failures of local staff or managers who did not escalate potential concerns with customers sooner, example, one lorry driver was able to spend £17K in a year and another staked more than £173K and lost £27,753 in the same period.

Those Bad Examples Keep on Coming

Anti-money laundering failures included failure to conduct an adequate risk assessment of their online business being used for money laundering and terrorist financing, allowing customers to spend large amounts without carrying out sufficient SOF checks – in one instance a customer from social housing was able to deposit £186K in just 6-months without being asked to provide source of income documents; failure to enhance customer due diligence checks soon enough when one online customer deposited £524,501 in 10-month before being asked for SOF evidence; allowing customers to stake large amounts of money without having been monitored or scrutinised.

Andrew Rhodes, Gambling Commission chief executive, said: “Our investigation revealed serious failures that have resulted in the largest enforcement outcome to date. There were completely unacceptable anti-money laundering and safer gambling failures. Operators are reminded they must never place commercial considerations over compliance.”

This isn’t the first time Entain have received a fine for failures though. In 2019, the operator received a £5.9m penalty for what the UKGC called “systematic failings that resulted in consumers being harmed.” Rhodes continued: “This is the second time this operator has fallen foul of rules in place to make gambling safer and crime free. They should be aware that we will be monitoring them very carefully and further serious breaches will make the removal of their licence to operate a very real possibility. We expect better and consumers deserve better.”

Labour MP Carolyn Harris, who leads a cross-party group on problem gambling, doesn’t think the current system is working and that operators are not playing by the rules as well as they should. In her opinion, the only way to stop this happening again is to tighten the rules by threatening prison time for those who continue to turn a blind eye to money laundering and social responsibility legislation.

Source: “Entain To Pay £17 Million For Regulatory Failures”. Gambling Commission. August 17, 2022.