Paddy Power Betfair is set to pay a £2.2 million penalty over a variety of shortcomings. One of these failings include allowing a customer to gamble with large sums of stolen charity money.
Following an investigation by a Gambling Commission, Paddy Power Betfair was found to be failing in certain areas.
An example its shortcomings is the company’s lack of communication with customers who exhibited signs of a gambling problem. In addition, the investigation also revealed the company failed to carry out anti-money laundering checks.
The investigation was focused on the behaviour of five customers in 2016. One of which used the Betfair online service to gamble a “significant amount of money” stolen from a charity.
This was not the only incident of stolen money being gambled. Indeed, it was found that another customer had also been actively gambling stolen money. Moreover, the Gambling Commission identified failings in “source of wealth and responsibility checks” for three customers.
Paddy Power Betfair must fork out £500,000 received from the gamblers. This is alongside an additional £1.7 million towards a responsible gambling strategy made by the commission. Additionally, money will be returned to the charity it was stolen from by a gambler.
The executive director of the Gambling Commission, Richard Watson, said:
“As a result of Paddy Power Betfair’s failings significant amounts of stolen money flowed through their exchange and this is simply not acceptable.”
“Operators have a duty to all of their customers to seek to prevent the proceeds of crime from being used in gambling.”
Furthermore, the chief executive of Paddy Power Betfair, Peter Jackson, has commented:
“We have a responsibility to intervene when our customers show signs of problem gambling.”
“In these five cases our interventions were not effective and we are very sorry that this occurred.”
“In recent years, we have invested in an extensive program of work to strengthen our resources and systems in responsible gambling and customer protection.”
At 09:07 BST today, shares in Paddy Power Betfair PLC (LON:PPB) were trading at +0.72%.
