Online betting platform Betway has been hit the highest penalty by the British Gambling Commission to date. The firm will pay £11.6 million for failing to check the source of funds used by its customers.

A record for the Gambling Commission

The penalty levied on Betway is a record for the Gambling Commission. It said that the firm failed to put money laundering and customer protection checks in place because of which one customer deposited £8 in his Betway account and lost more than half of it during a four-year period. The company also failed to interact effectively with another customer who deposited £187,000 in his Betway account and lost it all within two days.

The UKGC said that the investigations were linked specifically to dealings with seven high-spending customers of the gambling firm. It noted, “as a result of a lack of consideration of individual customers affordability and source of funds checks, the operator allowed £5.8m of money to flow through the business which has been found, or could reasonably be suspected to be, proceeds of crime”.

Betway’s management issues

The commission pointed out inadequate oversight by the Betway management in the case. It said that it is continuing a probe into responsible Personal Management License holders. The commission said that the firm did not care about the welfare of its high-spending customers. It didn’t take into account that they could be experiencing or the harm caused to the people around them.

The commission’s executive director Richard Watson added that the regulator is taking measures to make gambling safer for customers. It is creating a ripe environment for rapid progress in some areas that could have a considerable impact on consumer protection. He also noted that the handling and treatment of high spending customers is an important point in its agenda and all betting operators have to look into this issue quickly.