QuinnBet Fined £600,000 Over Substantial Regulatory Failings

The Irish betting firm QuinnBet has been fined a staggering £600,000 by the UK Gambling Commission after a regulatory investigation revealed a series of licence breaches.

Those included a host of social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings, which saw one player able to deposit more than four times their monthly salary – and lose it all within four days.

It has been a busy time for the Gambling Commission, who earlier this week fined the Adult Gaming Centre operator Holland Park Leisure £150,000 – to go with the near £10 million they collected from Evolution and the Rank Group in July.

QuinnBet Fined

Insufficient controls, failings in human and automated checks and a bodged migration to a new tech platform were all cited as the causes behind QuinnBet’s sizable sanction.

The errors were so significant that as many as 194 of their customers were able to deposit beyond their stated limit after backend software malfunctioned.

The Gambling Commission’s investigation unearthed a network of inadequacy, including a system that only reported an individual’s problem gambling behaviour the day after they had showed signs – rather than in real time.

And that failing enabled one punter to stake a mind-boggling £215,000 in a single day, with their excessive spending only flagged up the day after.

Other notable failings included:

• One individual deposited and lost £9,000 within four days – despite affordability checks revealing a £2,000 a month salary.
• A player was able to deposit £120,000 – and subsequently withdraw £111,000 – within the space of three months, with no source of funds checks.
• Another was allowed to place more than 11,000 bets in the space of 48 hours without any intervention.

Remedial Action

QuinnBet were found to lack ‘effective processes for identifying, acting and evaluating customer interactions to minimise harms,’ while a manual system for checking deposit limits meant a delay of several hours before any financial ceilings were updated – one ‘young adult’ was able to deposit eight times their stated limit… and lose all of the money inside 24 hours.

The investigation also found that, in some cases, alarms were only triggered on customer accounts after they had lost double their stated loss limit.

It’s a horror show of failings that could have led to a more substantial sanction, but for QuinnBet’s otherwise clean record and quick response in putting together a remedial action plan.

The Gambling Commission’s director of enforcement, John Pierce, said:

“This case highlights the serious consequences of relying on systems and controls that are unable to identify and respond to indicators of harm and financial crime quickly enough.”

Gambling Commission’s Penalty Spree

Earlier this week, Holland Park Leisure – who operate three Adult Gaming Centres in and around Leicester – were fined £150,000.

They had failed to implement any self-exclusion schemes, which are a licence requirement. These programmes prohibit players wanting to stop themselves from betting from entering gambling premises anywhere across the UK.

Having previously been warned about their lack of action – and subsequently providing the regulator with ‘misleading information’, Holland Park Leisure were told of their fine this week.

“Self-exclusion schemes provide a crucial service for people who feel they are suffering gambling harm. These are not optional requirements. They are fundamental licence conditions designed to protect consumers from harm,” Pierce commented.

Further Fines

It continues a busy period for the Gambling Commission, who received a £5 million settlement from the Rank Group in July after a series of regulatory failings were uncovered.

Just days prior, software provider Evolution was fined £4.75 million after a handful of their games were found on illegal betting sites.

In June, the regulator issued a £122,835 sanction to Stakelogic, after some of their slots were found to have breached Remote Technical Standards.