Leading North of England Corbett Bookmakers has been fined a swingeing £686,070 by the UK’s regulatory Gambling Commission (UKGC) for serious social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) breaches.
Founded in 1947 by William Thomas Corbett as Telephone Credit Bookmakers, with a starting capital of £1,000, the still family-owned bookies has a string of 57 traditional high street betting shops in North Wales, the north west and north of England. It also has a number of betting pitches at top racecourses throughout the UK, including Royal Ascot and Cheltenham.
In addition to the fine, Corbett will also be required to undergo a forensic third-party audit to ensure its AML and safer gambling policies, procedures, and controls are effectively implemented in the future.
The UKGC sanction followed a two-day compliance assessment, which highlighted widespread failures in customer interactions and financial monitoring.
Social responsibility breaches included inadequate identification of at-risk players: one punter, for example, was allowed to stake £23,674 (US$30,670) over 13-days without sufficient intervention.
In another instance, a customer placed 56 bets in a four-hour session, losing £3,523 (US$4,563) without adequate engagement from the operator. A further case involved a player who staked £47,416 (US$61,428) and lost £6,741 (US$8,733) over 10-weeks without sufficient responsible gambling checks.
Operators Warned
AML shortcomings were also identified, with customers able to stake and lose substantial sums without appropriate Know Your Customer (KYC) verification.
In one case, a player staked approximately £47,000 (US$60,901) and lost £14,000 (US$18,142) over eight-months without the source of funds being verified.
In their ruling, the UKGC found Corbett’s risk assessment to be inadequate, failing to account for customer, product, geographic and payment risks, and ultimately “lacking a robust risk-based approach to financial crime prevention”.
The breaches took place between February 2022 and May 2024, and the imposed fine reflects the commission’s ongoing efforts to enforce compliance across the industry, ensuring operators adhere to strict regulatory standards in player protection and financial controls.
“This operator has failed to adhere to vital regulations designed to make gambling safer and free from criminal activity,” informed John Pierce, the UKGC’s Director of Enforcement.
“As a result, it will not only pay a significant fine but also undergo a rigorous audit to ensure full compliance with anti-money laundering and safer gambling measures.
“In addition to the remedial actions already taken, we expect the operator to swiftly and fully implement the audit recommendations, demonstrating clear and measurable improvements in both policy and practice.
“Failure to do so will prompt our compliance team to reassess the situation and take further action as necessary.”
“All operators should carefully consider this case and the price this operator is now paying.”
