Betting firm allowed addict to blow £1.5m of stolen cash

Ladbrokes fined record £6m for failing to help gambler – or stop money laundering

THE country’s biggest gambling firm was yesterday fined almost £6million for a litany of failings.

These included allowing an addict to blow £1.5million of stolen money on its bets.

The industry regulator hit Ladbrokes Coral with a record £5.9million penalty for its ‘systemic failure’ to protect vulnerable customers and prevent money laundering. In the most serious example, Coral failed to check how a customer was funding a £1.5million gambling habit.

The firm did not ask if they could afford the sum, which was spent over three years, even though the customer showed signs of addiction including logging in to their online account ten times a day and losing up to £64,000 a month.

In another case, a customer lost £98,000 with Ladbrokes despite their bank declining 460 attempts to pay money into their gambling account – a clear sign they might not be able to afford their losses. In a third case, the bookmaker failed to check if one of its customers had a gambling problem after they made £140,000 of deposits in the first four months of their account being open.

Ladbrokes’ initial approach to the problems was to designate fewer customers as high risk, rather than improve its response, the Gambling Commission said. It found seven serious cases in which Ladbrokes and Coral customers’ addiction had led to criminal or suspected criminal behaviour between 2014 and 2017.

The failures detailed yesterday took place before the group’s owner GVC bought Ladbrokes Coral for £3.2billion in March last year. The fine pales in comparison with the international conglomerate’s 2018 operating profit of £600million, from a revenue of £2.9billion.

Adam Bradford, co-founder the Safer Online Gambling Group, said: ‘The fine is a drop in the ocean for any gambling company. A multibillion-pound industry will not be corrected by a punitive fine.

‘Funds checking should be a nonnegotiable part of how betting companies do business.’

Richard Watson, the regulator’s executive director, said: ‘These were systemic failings at a large operator, which resulted in consumers being harmed and stolen money flowing though the business. This is unacceptable.’

The tactics used by Ladbrokes Coral to encourage vulnerable gamblers to lose vast sums were laid bare in court earlier this year.

Steven Girling, 36, from Norwich, was jailed for four years after he stole £1million from his employer to fund his gambling.

He said Ladbrokes Coral and two other firms had wooed him to carry on betting with VIP tickets and luxury trips to top events, even though he was addicted. The freebies allowed him and his wife Rashael, 42, to live like millionaires, drinking champagne at five-star hotels in Dubai and entertaining friends at races including Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The father-of-two said his addictive behaviour was never questioned despite the vast sums he was spending online on slot machines and roulette between 2014 and 2017.

In reality much of the money was stolen from his employer Premier Education Group, Norwich Crown Court heard.

His case was reported to the Gambling Commission last year but the regulator yesterday refused to confirm whether it was included in the enforcement action.

As part of the settlement, GVC will pay £4.8million to responsible gambling treatment and research, and give £1.1million to ‘affected parties’ including victims of crime.

The regulator, which has the power to sack directors in the most serious cases, will now review the roles of senior staff in the breaches.

GVC’s chief executive Kenny Alexander said: ‘These historical failings were unacceptable and since the acquisition I have overseen a systematic review of the enlarged group’s player protection procedures.’

Ayrshire-born Mr Alexander studied at Glasgow University and has been CEO of GVC since 2007.