Online gambling firm closes after probe into death of customer, 25
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AN ONLINE gambling firm has closed after regulators found serious failings around player protection and anti-money laundering processes.
The Gambling Commission launched an investigation into PT Entertainment Services (PTES) after a 25-year-old customer took his own life having lost more than £30,000 through its sites www. winner.co.uk and titanbet.co.uk.
Publishing its findings yesterday, the regulator found PTES failed to carry out any “responsible gambling” interactions with the customer, despite being aware that several of his debit card transactions had been declined.
The company also provided him with VIP status without verifying he could afford to spend the amounts of money he was playing with.
The commission was contacted by the customer’s family in November 2018 following his death
April 2017.
Its inquiry found that between
Neil McArthur, the Gambling Commission’s chief executive. December 26, 2016 and April 12, 2017 – when the customer’s “Winner” account was suspended due to his death – he had a net loss of £34,068. On December 29, 2016, an internal email was sent stating that the customer had lost £22,000 and that PTES did not know his occupation.
The commission said PTES gave “no consideration” to problem gambling checks and instead emailed him an invitation to take part in a promotion to win more than £3.7m.
It also found that he lost £119,395 between April 1 and 5 2017 – with PTES failing to verify whether he could afford to play, the commission said.
PTES could have faced a fine of at least £3.5m, but was not required to pay as the company surrendered its operating licence during the investigation, the commission added.
However, Playtech, its parent company, pledged to donate £5m to mental health and gamblingrelated harm charities over the next five years as part of its strategy to promote better online health.
PTES also donated £619,395 to charity. In a statement, Playtech said the decision to close its Titan and Winner brands was taken before it was notified of the investigation, while PTES’s licence was already due to expire in October 2019.
Neil McArthur, the commission’s chief executive, pictured, said: “This is a tragic case which came to light after I was contacted by the family of the young man who very sadly took his own life.
“Although PTES has ceased trading we decided to complete our investigation and publish our findings, as the lessons from this tragic case must be learned by all operators. Our investigations into the role played by key individuals at PTES are continuing. As such, it would be inappropriate to say more about the specific case at this time.”
The lessons from this case must be learned by all operators.