Snookered, Betfred Done £3.25m For Serious AML SR Failures

Done Bros (Cash Betting) Limited, better known as Betfred, founded by billionaire brothers Fred and Peter Done in 1969, has agreed to pay a £3.25 million fine following an investigation by the UK’s regulatory Gambling Commission (UKGC) for social responsibility and anti-money laundering breaches.

The settlement between the Northern gambling powerhouse, which operates 1,750 High Street betting shops, and the UKGC identified a series of social responsibility failures, among them:

Having insufficient controls in place to protect new customers, and to monitor high velocity spend and duration of play exposing the customer to the risk of substantial losses without safer gambling interaction.

Making assumptions that customers were not at risk of harm because they were winning customers. For example, faling to carry out any safer gambling interactions on one customer who staked £517,499 over a two-month period.

Lack of evidence of “evaluation of the effectiveness of individual customer interactions”, and a lack of record keeping which limited the effectiveness of future interactions.

Anti-money laundering failures included:

Poor record keeping and financial alerts, thresholds, were set too high.

Failing to consistently obtain appropriate ‘know-your-customer’ identification and Source-of-Funds (SoF) documentation from its customers when its thresholds were met.

Placing an undue reliance on open-source information, and should have taken further steps to corroborate customers’ SoF information.

These failures, noted the UKGC, occurred at various times between January 2021 and December 2022.

By addressing these regulatory shortcomings and reaching a settlement, Done Bros (Cash Betting) Limited aims to strengthen its compliance measures and uphold the highest standards of social responsibility and anti-money laundering practices in the iGaming industry, Betfred has agreed.

Kay Roberts, UKGC Executive Director, said: “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.

“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.”

All £3.25 million of the settlement will go to socially responsible causes.

More details of the failings can be read in the public statement.