Betfred has been fined £322,000 by the UK Gambling Commission over anti-money laundering failings.
The online casino operator’s parent company Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited has been ordered to pay the fine following an investigation led by the UK Gambling Commission which found “shortcomings” in its anti-money launder (AML) operations.
According to reports, the Commission launched the investigation after receiving information regarding a customer who had been convicted of fraud, spending stolen money at several casino operators including Petfre’s Betfred.
In its investigation, the regulatory body discovered that the operator had failed to carry out funds checks on a customer who had deposited £210,000 of stolen money and lost £140,000 all within a 12-day period back in November 2017.
The Commission also discovered that the customer had opened multiple accounts in a short period of time and that Betfred had requested the user to provide Source of Funds information on two occasions but the customer had failed to do so.
The regulatory body said that the customer’s ability to deposit and lose large amounts of money as well as their ability to fail to verify their source of funds indicated “failings in the effectiveness of Petfre’s anti-money laundering policies and procedures”.
As a result, Petfre has been made to pay its gross gambling yield of £140,000 which will be returned to the victim. What’s more, the online casino will make a payment of £182,000 to the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms.
Petre has also been ordered to publish a statement of facts and has since accepted responsibility for its AML failings. The operator says it has since taken steps to prevent any similar incidents from happening.
In a statement on its website, the Commission said: “The management of this customer in relation to anti-money laundering raised significant concerns regarding the effectiveness of the policies and procedures that Petfre had in place, and its management of risks to the licensing objectives.
“Since this incident, Petfre has made improvements to its AML procedures to prevent a recurrence of the failings.”
