Haydon Simcock was also given a 200-hour community service order and must pay £230,000 in victim compensation.
A British man has been issued a 30-week suspended jail sentence for running an illegal gambling business via the WhatsApp messaging service and failing to pay a customer’s account balance of £269,000 ($358,642).
Haydon Simcock admitted to providing gambling services without a licence between 18 October 2023 and 11 September 2024. Simcock, 40, also admitted to advertising unlawful gambling without a licence between 26 May 2023 and 1 March 2024.
This came to light following an investigation by the Gambling Commission and Staffordshire Police after receiving intelligence from a reporter at the Racing Post. The probe uncovered how Simcock claimed to be the VIP commercial manager at The Post Bookmakers.
Simcock invited people to WhatsApp and set up gambling accounts through the social media, acting as a customer services agent and collecting cash from people to place bets. He also provided administrative backup, agreed odds and offers such as matched deposits and rewards for referrals.
Records recovered from Simcock’s electronic devices also revealed Simcock took bets from people he suspected of dealing drugs, as well as how he said he could make an unhappy customer “disappear”.
It was also discovered that Simcock had failed to pay one customer their £269,000 balance. This was despite Simcock having repeatedly told the customer that his money was “safe”.
Simcock ‘narrowly’ avoided jail over illegal gambling scheme
Ruling on the case, Birmingham Magistrates’ Court told Simcock that he “narrowly avoided custody” over the matter. His 30-week jail sentence was suspended for two years.
Simcock was also handed a 200-hour community service order and ordered to pay £230,000 compensation to the victim. This was due to the player having deposited £240,000 but having been paid £10,000. In addition, Simcock must pay £60,000 in costs for the Gambling Commission.
John Pierce, director of enforcement at the Gambling Commission, said the case emphasized the regulator’s “determination” to tackle illegal gambling in Britain.
“This case illustrates all the risks that consumers face from illegal gambling — links to crime, having no regard for social responsibility, repeatedly exploiting consumers and operating without any of the necessary operational safeguards in place,” Pierce said.
“This investigation shows our determination to take action against illegal operators and protect consumers from harm.
“Using mobile apps like WhatsApp does not make illegal gambling invisible or beyond our reach — we can evidence such activity is taking place and we will use every power available to us to play our part in removing this unlawful activity from the British marketplace and to ensure those responsible are held to account for their actions.”
Uncertainty over black market spend in Britain
The ruling came after the commission last month published the fourth and final chapter of its first-ever research into the UK’s black market. Among the key findings was the regulator’s uncertainty over how much players are actually spending with illegal operators.
The report considered the challenges of estimating the size of the market and provided the commission’s recommendations for further progress. It said current measurement and monitoring methods offered only limited insight into the issue.
The report considered three approaches. These included dwell time approach, which converts data on engagement and “time-spent-on-site” into expenditure estimates. The second, the channelisation approach, was based on comparing data on legal and illegal channels of engagement with gambling. Finally, the survey-based approach involved players responding to pre-set questions.
Of these three, the commission only pursued the dwell time and channelisation methodologies in its four-part report. However, it said underlying data from surveys was unreliable as consumers’ recall of past expenditure in gambling surveys is “generally poor”.
However, it also said neither of the other two approaches presented enough data to allow it to form an accurate view of the illegal market, saying more work is required to make progress.