Paddy Power Betfair has agreed to pay a £2 million penalty after the industry watchdog found it failed to step in quickly enough when customers deposited large sums of money.
The Gambling Commission said a compliance assessment last year uncovered social responsibility failures at Paddy Power Betfair, whose customer interactions “fell far short of what is required”.
In one case, Paddy Power Betfair, which is owned by Flutter Entertainment, the world’s largest online betting company, failed to intervene despite a customer staking £86,000 over a 16-day period — where they ultimately lost £6,000 — and completed a manual review only when the losses escalated.
Other failures highlighted by the commission include one instance where the company did not step in soon enough when a customer went on an intense betting spree during which they placed more than 300 bets totalling £20,000, with one session lasting more than seven hours.
Four operators trading under the names Paddy Power and Betfair — PPB Entertainment, PPB Counterparty Services, Betfair Casino and TSE Malta — will pay the money as part of the settlement.
John Pierce, commission director of enforcement at the Gambling Commission, said the £2 million settlement reflected “the seriousness of the failings identified and the importance of meeting social responsibility and customer interaction standards”.
“These failings should never have occurred,” he said. “While the licensees co-operated fully with the investigation, accepted the failings early and implemented an action plan quickly, this immediate response is the minimum we expect from operators when serious shortcomings are identified.”
Betting firms must put in place systems and processes to monitor gambling activity to identify worrying behaviours from the point when an account is opened.
While Paddy Power had several systems in place, the examples of failures uncovered showed “the velocity of spend, increasing deposits, overnight gambling, and changing betting patterns did not appear to be identified by the licensees or acted upon until the next day”, according to the commission.
It is the second sanction in just over two years for the business. In May 2023, the commission fined Paddy Power and Betfair £490,000 for sending promotional material to customers who had excluded themselves from gambling.
A spokesperson for Flutter’s UK and Ireland business said: “Flutter takes its safer gambling responsibilities incredibly seriously and we firmly believe that we lead the industry in player protection.”
“Customer safety is our No 1 priority and there is no suggestion that any of the customers reviewed by the Gambling Commission experienced any harm. Our controls have evolved significantly and we recently introduced a next generation customer safety platform, with the vast majority of checks now happening in real-time.
“As such, we are confident that the issues highlighted by the commission in its public statement would not be repeated today. We continue to invest in our technology and our people to raise standards in the regulated industry.”