Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited, the operator of betfred.com, has agreed to pay £900,000 following a settlement with the UK Gambling Commission over social responsibility failings.
The settlement follows a Commission investigation launched after a compliance assessment identified deficiencies in the operator’s safer gambling policies and procedures.
According to the regulator, Petfre did not have sufficient automated processes in place to identify indicators of gambling-related harm, including customer spending levels, time spent gambling and spending patterns.
The Commission also found that the operator lacked processes to ensure immediate automated action was taken when strong indicators of harm were identified.
In addition, the investigation found that once a customer’s account had been flagged for a safer gambling review, the system prevented it from being flagged again for seven days. The Commission said this delayed further customer interactions despite additional signs of harm emerging. In one case, a customer lost £17,900 within 24 hours without receiving a further intervention.
Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited will pay £900,000 as part of the regulatory settlement with the UK Gambling Commission.
John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, said: “Diligent implementation of effective policies and procedures are the cornerstones of safer gambling in Britain.
“The Commission found that Petfre didn’t have sufficiently effective procedures in place, meaning some customers displaying markers of harm were not contacted quickly enough.
“While the gaps we identified were unacceptable, the licensee acted swiftly to implement interim mitigating controls to address our immediate concerns. They have since delivered an appropriate action plan and taken significant steps to assure the Commission that their current operating model meets our requirements.
“The failure to implement an effective monitoring framework to identify and contact consumers at risk of harm at pace has resulted in a significant regulatory settlement.
“We expect all operators to learn from this case and read the public statement to ensure they do not make the same mistakes.”
Read the Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited Public Statement from the UK Gambling Commission.
