Paddy Power Betfair to pay £2m after Gambling Commission finds slow response to concerning customer behaviours
Paddy Power Betfair will pay £2 million following findings by the Gambling Commission that the company had a slow response to concerning customer behaviours. The payment is described as in lieu of a financial penalty.
The Gambling Commission's review last year uncovered social responsibility failures, noting that some customer interactions did not identify warning signs promptly and were only acted upon the following day. Several notable cases were cited, including a customer staking £86,000 over 16 days and losing £6,000, and another placing 300 bets within eight hours. Other examples involved a gambler depositing £25,000 over 25 days before an interaction occurred, and another 17-day gambling spree with a session lasting seven hours and 46 minutes, involving more than 300 bets totaling about £20,000.
The Commission highlighted that factors such as the velocity of spend, rising deposits, overnight gambling, and changing betting patterns were not identified or acted upon in a timely manner, which delayed intervention.
This £2 million settlement reflects the seriousness of the issues and serves as a warning against over-reliance on automation and delays in intervention, according to John Pierce, Director of Enforcement at the Gambling Commission. Paddy Power Betfair cooperated fully with the investigation and quickly initiated a plan to address the failings.
Flutter Entertainment, the parent company, stated that customer safety is their top priority and maintains that their safeguards are industry-leading. They have introduced a next-generation real-time safety platform and suggested that the issues highlighted would not be repeated today.
This case follows a previous fine earlier in 2023, when Paddy Power and Betfair were fined £490,000 for sending messages to vulnerable customers who had requested to be excluded.
