Paddy Power says sorry for fuelling gambler’s habit
BOOKMAKERS Paddy Power has apologised for encouraging a gambling addict to visit its outlets more often – resulting in the man losing his house, job and family.
The shocking behaviour by a senior member of staff in a UK betting shop owned by the Irish bookies was exposed in a scathing report which criticised the betting agent.
The gambling group described the actions of the employee involved as ‘unacceptable’ and vowed to improve its training in the future.
The incident involved a senior staff member telling staff at the Paddy Power shop to encourage a betting addict to visit the outlet more.
The customer’s gambling got so out of control he was working five jobs to fund his habit, which resulted in the man losing his job, home and family. The group issued a state- ment yesterday saying that the historical failings outlined in the British Gambling Commission report were clearly ‘unacceptable’.
‘Paddy Power has since significantly strengthened its internal procedures, and staff have been retrained to ensure these procedures are im- plemented effectively.’ The bookmaker, which this year merged with gambling giant Betfair, also failed to stop its fixed-odds betting machines being used to launder the proceeds of crime.
Paddy Power was slammed by the UK’s Gambling Commission for their failures in both the cases involving an out-of-control addict and a money launderer referred to as Customer A and Customer B.
The group has agreed to pay €357,000 [£280,000] to a ‘socially responsible’ cause in lieu of a financial penalty. Paddy Power also agreed to the commissioning of a review of its own anti-money-laundering and social-responsibility controls.
The shop in Britain was found to be negligent after staff working for Paddy Power were found to have encouraged a ‘problem gambler’.
In one instance, Paddy Power admitted that senior staff encouraged the man with a gambling problem to keep betting despite concerns expressed by junior employees.
The man, Customer A, was a fre- quent user of fixed-odds betting terminals, which were referred to as the ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling in the report. The machines – which are not in Irish Paddy Power shops – allow customers to bet up to €120 every 20 seconds on games such as roulette and blackjack, for which the odds are fixed.
In May 2014, Paddy Power staff became aware that Customer A was working five separate jobs to fund his gambling and had no money, the Gambling Commission found.
Although he claimed to be comfortable with his level of gambling, staff at the Paddy Power betting shop passed their concerns to senior staff, who advised monitoring him.
Later that month, the shop manager informed a more senior member of staff that Customer A would be visiting the shop less frequently. The senior employee responded by advising that ‘steps should be taken to try to increase Customer A’s visits and time spent in the gambling premises’. ‘This was grossly at odds with the licensing objective of preventing vulnerable people from being exploited by gambling,’ said the Gambling Commission.
It also found the man’s level of spending triggered a need to undertake enhanced due diligence by staff, which was performed in 2014, but further diligence exercised was deemed to be relatively low.
And in August 2014, th report showed, a shop manager suspected Customer B of using Paddy Power terminals to launder Scottish banknotes. Further concerns were passed on to senior management four times over six months but were ‘repeatedly overruled’ and not reported to the company’s money-laundering officer. Customer B was only banned after police raised fears about the notes being laundered for criminals.
‘Grossly at odds with objective’