The online gambling operator Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited, which trades as Betfred, is facing a regulatory fine for money laundering failures which emerged as a result of an investigation held by the British gambling regulatory body.
The investigation of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) found that Betfred failed to carry out the suitable checks for the source of funds of a customer who deposited £210,000 and lost £140,000 on the company’s website in a 12-day period back in November 2017. It turned out that the customer played with stolen money, and the fact that they were able to deposit and spend such large amounts of money so quickly highlighted the imperfections of the online gambling company’s anti-money laundering policies and procedures.
Petfre to pay £322,000 for money laundering failures https://t.co/0yxFiaFT7J
— Gambling Commission (@GamRegGB) October 10, 2019
As part for the settlement with the UKGC, Betfred will pay a total of £322,000. The company will pay £182,000 in lieu of a financial penalty, and the remaining £140,000 will be returned to the identified victim.
The UKGC investigation into Betfred was held as a result of information received by the regulatory body regarding a customer who had been convicted of fraud for £2 million and had been spending stolen money through a number of gambling operators, including Betfred.
Betfred Failed to Get Customer’s Source-Of-Funds Data and Act in Accordance with LCCP Rules
As found by the probe, the customer registered a number of gambling accounts in a short period of time and proceeded with making large deposits and suffering significant losses. He was found that he deposited a total amount of £210,000 and lost £140,000 with Betfred in 12 days.
It was the way Betfred handled its interaction with the customer in relation to anti-money laundering which raised significant concerns in terms of the online gambling operator’s policies efficiency and its management of risks to the licensing objectives. Since the incident, the company had made certain changes to its anti-money laundering procedures in order to prevent another one from happening.
Under the policies which the gambling company was supposed to follow, Betfred requested Source Of Funds (SOF) on two occasions in November 2017 but the customer did not provide it with the required information. This also allowed the customer to deposit £210,000 of stolen money in a 12-day period and lost £140,000 with the company. However, the fact that Betfred did nothing to prevent the person from depositing and losing such significant amounts in such a short period of time indicated some failures in the operator’s procedures and policies.
This is why the UKGC concluded that the online gambling operator violated its licence condition 12.1.1 and failed to act as it was supposed to under LCCP provision 2.1.2.
Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited has accepted the allegations of failing to meet the anti-money laundering standards in its procedures and policies in accordance with the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP).
- Author
Olivia Cole
