Online casino fined millions for ‘encouraging at-risk gambler’

An online casino has been handed a £2 million penalty for offering financial incentives to a punter who showed numerous signs of problem gambling.

32Red was punished after allowing the anonymous customer to deposit over £750,000 with no money laundering or social responsibility checks.

It comes as high street bookmaker Coral was also reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for promoting online games using cartoon characters.

Ignored the signs

An investigation by the Gambling Commission into 32Red found that between November 2014 and April 2017 there were at least 22 incidents indicating the customer was a problem gambler.

Richard Watson, Executive Director of the Commission, said: “Instead of checking on the welfare of a customer displaying problem gambling behaviour, 32Red encouraged the customer to gamble more – this is the exact opposite of what they are supposed to be doing.”

“Operators must take action when they spot signs of problem gambling and should be carefully reviewing all the customers they are having a high level of contact with”, he added.

The customer was offered bonuses by 32Red to continue betting.

Children

In Coral’s case, it used images to market slot machine games that were deemed by the ASA “likely to be of particular appeal to under-18s”.

The ASA concluded that the images “breached the Committee of Advertising Practice Code”.

A spokesman added: “Coral cannot use these images on the freely accessible parts of its website or in third-party media.”

£8 million fine

In August last year, 888 UK Limited was handed a record fine of nearly £8 million after it failed to block users who wanted to stop gambling.

The business allowed thousands of customers who had chosen to self-exclude on one platform to continue betting on another platform.

William Hill was also fined over £6 million for failing to spot money laundering and for breaching social responsibility rules.

And Sky Bet was reprimanded after it failed to help tens of thousands of people who wanted to stop gambling.

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