Fine handed to Ladbrokes Coral after customer loses £98,000

The owner of Ladbrokes Coral has been fined almost £6 million for failing its anti-money laundering measures as well as not being able to protect its vulnerable customers.

Over a 3-year period, they have “failed” to put protective measures in place to prevent their customers from suffering harm related to gambling and online casinos.

One customer in particular had lost £98,000, leading to him asking the firm to stop sending him promotions. However, the firm failed to carry out their “social responsibility interactions.”

The UK Gambling Commission have also managed to highlight a coral customer who spent over £1.5 million in 3 years. In this time period, they logged onto their account roughly 10 times a day for a month and lost over £64,000 in a 4-week period.

The Commission found that at no point did Coral ask this customer to prove he had the funds and there was no evidence of them carrying out their social responsibility regulations.

The director of the UKCG, Richard Watson claimed, “these were systematic failing which resulted in consumers being harmed, which is unacceptable”

GVC, who own Ladbrokes, have acknowledged and regretted the fact that certain legacy systems and processes in place at Ladbrokes did not meet requirements.

GVC also own other gambling outlets including Bwin, Eurobet, Neds and Sportingbet. Their online games include Foxy Bingo, PartyCasino and CasinoClub.

The Penalty that has been imposed for Ladbrokes Coral group is one of the biggest that has been imposed by the UK Gambling watchdog.

UK firm 888 had to pay a record £7.8 million in 2017 after being found unable to handle its vulnerable customers. William Hill also had to pay around £6 million after failing to protect customers and prevent money laundering in 2018.