The Plymouth City Council has greenlit plans for a new adult gaming centre that is now set to be housed in the building of a former Betfred betting shop. The unit, which is located in Plymouth’s Embankment Road, has been vacant for several years.
In the initial application that argued for the adult gaming centre’s opening, it was stressed that, if approved, the venue would ensure that Plymouth residents would have further employment options in terms of both the fit-out works process and the positions that will be created once the centre officially opens its doors. An emphasis was placed on how a formerly vacant building “in a sustainable location” that has sat unused since 2022 will be put into use.
Although some potential concerns were examined during the assessment process, the City Council’s final report deemed them to be “not significant enough” for the proposal to be rejected. Attention was also drawn to the fact that the function of an adult gaming centre is similar to that of a sportsbook. In addition, the approval report also underscored how a unit that has been vacant for quite some time will, thanks to the opening of the gaming centre, contribute to the local area.
Indeed, it has been several years since one of the Betfred betting shops that used to entertain Plymouth locals closed, and the year of closure had been turbulent for the operator in general. After all, it was in 2022 that Betfred was handed a fine of £2.87 million for wrongdoings related to social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. One of the violations of the UK Gambling Commission’s rules involved the enabling of a new client to incur losses of £70,000 in a mere ten hours.
Bet365 Has Also Faced The Scrutiny of the UKGC
Betfred’s 2022 fine was not the first nor the last time the operator would get in trouble with the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) — not even a year later, the gambling watchdog hit Betfred with an additional fine. Another operator that is no stranger to the scrutiny of Britain’s gambling regulator is bet365, as last week, the bookmaker was forced to pay over £582,000 in financial penalties.
Like Betfred, the transgressions had to do with bet365’s failure to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) rules. Issues tied to social responsibility were also identified. While investigating bet365, the UKGC found that the operator had not “tailored” interactions surrounding gambling harm to customers’ respective circumstances.
Moreover, the UKGC also deemed bet365’s Early Risk Detection system to be ineffective when it comes to “understanding the impact of individual interactions” on clients’ behaviour. It had, therefore, been unable to judge whether additional aid or restrictions were necessary. This resulted in the operator’s failure to determine if the advice given to clients had been understood or even read.
As for the sportsbook’s AML-related problems, they include the lack of financial sanctions on newly registered users, ineffective know your customer (KYC) triggers, and unreliable customer risk profiling, among others.
- Author
Daniel Williams
