LADBROKES FINED

[Stepandstop]

JUST SEEN ON THE NEWS THAT LADBROKES CORAL GROUP HAVE BEEN FINED 5.9 MILLION POUNDS FOR MONEY LAUNDERING AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 

£1.1 MILLION WILL HAVE TO BE PAID BACK TO THE PUNTERS WHO LOST THE MONEY

WILL THEY PUT IT BACK IN THE FOBTS BASICALLY PUTTING IT BACK IN THERE TILLS ?

1 PERSON WAS ALLOWED TO GAMBLE OVER £1 MILLION POUNDS 😮😮😮😮😮

[The crisp man]

On the beeb website it says after the announcement shares in GVC rose.. even when Ladbrokes lose they win!

I imagine the money will go directly to the punters who raised the claim, the FOBTs rtp will probably go down to compensate 😅😅

[BlindHaze]

I’m a little torn over this. I agree that Ladbrokes should absolutely have completed their due diligence with the online account, it’s black and white and you can see exactly what the punter is betting. In that instance, the fine is absolutely deserved and they need to implement and enforce tighter controls. Disgraceful conduct by them, especially after the guy asked to be removed from their mailing list (GDPR anyone..?).

However I think it’s harder with the FOBTs. It’s often all cash, it may be numerous shops (there’s 3 BetFreds in Southend high street!) and it may encompass many different staff shifts so a pattern may not always be visible. You can self exclude which you’d hope would be enough, however as far as I’m aware all they can do is take a photo and it’s not always easy to recognise people that way. I’ve just started a new job and people have their picture on their Outlook profile. Even from that, I still struggle to recognise people - I don’t know how tall they are, how wide they are, maybe they’ve had their hair done, grown a beard... hence they may be unrecognisable. If a bookies can demonstrate that they’ve turned someone away 99 times out of 100, and on that 1 time the punter lost £100s on an FOBT, then I think that the onus should be on the punter and the bookies in the clear. I used to work in retail management and we kept a refusals register which recorded the amount of times we refused a sale on an age restricted product due to no ID (we had a policy of legal age to buy +7, similar to the Challenge 25 policy for booze), this was used as evidence to anyone authority that asked to show we’re being diligent (or ‘cover your arse’ as I used to tell my till staff!). I’d guess that bookies have a similar thing. 

I know my opinion may not be popular, but even though I agree that the bookies need to take a lot of responsibility, so should the punter. And the burden shouldn’t be completely on the bookies to stop people who are hell bent on gambling due to a tragic addiction.

Anyway, on a lighter note and to anyone who made it to the end of my ramblings, can you guess how much anger was caused by IDing everyone who appeared to be under 23 years old for party poppers...?

[Stepandstop]

BLIND HAZE your response is 100% correct 

just a little story about gambling addiction this sounds hard to believe but my dad retired from the police force 20 years ago now he once told me of a gambling addict who committed crime to pay for his fruit machine addiction 

he was sent to a facility where they had a fruit machine which had the RTP turned off every single spin would be a loss no matter how much you put in 

this Man was told this but still continued to feed the machine with coins

Nows that serious addiction how many of us on this forum would go on a fruit machine if you knew you couldn’t win ?

[BlindHaze]

Wow, that is something else, and also a sign of how crippling a gambling problem can be. I honestly feel for these people and hope they can find it in them to get back on the straight and narrow. Gambling isn’t like other addictions such as heroin where there can be a noticeable physical change, it’s often silent and invisible and that’s what makes it so sad to me.

[fatcabs]

Now turn the tables if these accounts were winning this money regularly would they have there account restricted or even closed 

I remember a guest on C4 racing saying his account was restricted do had to get friends and family to put his bests on because of him winning

[BlindHaze]

11 minutes ago, fatcabs said:

Now turn the tables if these accounts were winning this money regularly would they have there account restricted or even closed 

I remember a guest on C4 racing saying his account was restricted do had to get friends and family to put his bests on because of him winning

I agree, with online accounts it’s easy to tell. Although if you banned people who were either winning or losing then you’d have a very lonely site...

I can only criticise the bookies for their handling of the above case, they need to do a thousand times better. I suppose my point was that it’s not as easy to track if someone’s losing cash in a FOBT.

[Seaton-slots]

With revenues of just under €3 billion a fine of £5.9M doesn't even equate to a rap over the knuckles... It look like a hollow gesture from a toothless quango.  

[Mentholdan]

2 hours ago, Seaton-slots said:

With revenues of just under €3 billion a fine of £5.9M doesn't even equate to a rap over the knuckles... It look like a hollow gesture from a toothless quango.  

Too right, it's just a piss in the ocean. 

[DaveM]

10 hours ago, BlindHaze said:

I agree, with online accounts it’s easy to tell. Although if you banned people who were either winning or losing then you’d have a very lonely site...

I can only criticise the bookies for their handling of the above case, they need to do a thousand times better. I suppose my point was that it’s not as easy to track if someone’s losing cash in a FOBT.

The thing is its not even about the losing punters. That's a tiny subplot. The main thrust is how awful their anti money laundering protection is. Once you go down that rabbit hole you are looking at organised crime, drugs, prostitution, human trafficking. A shocking lack of concern to customers who are depositing vast sums of money. If you wanted to withdraw a hundred quid you'd need to prove who you are and yet they'll let people deposit hundreds of thousands without batting an eyelid.

Heads should roll over this.

 

[cazza6565]

When I worked in the betting industry I used to raise it at manager meetings how easy it is for Self Excused customers to slip through the net. When a customer can exclude from Ladbrokes,Hills ,Betfred etc on the one form its impossible to keep track in each shop. And the issue raised above couldn't be more true bet as much as you like till you win then it's can we have proof of income etc

[cazza6565]

Sorry should read Self Excluded predictive text I blame