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The UK Gambling Commission issued a £1 million ($1.4 million) fine against Sky Bet, the British-based gambling company explicating that hundreds of people were capable of placing bets on the online gambling company’s website irrespective of the notifications to stop doing so.
The fine is related to what is known as self-exclusion programme, which enables customers to make the operators aware that they no longer want to be allowed to gamble on their sites, in their shops, or at casinos. These tools can be utilized by those who know they have gambling problems, or by vulnerable individuals who are under the threat of developing compulsive habits.
According to the investigation of the Gambling Commission, 736 Sky Bet customers were able to open new accounts despite being requested to be blocked. Many of these individuals even used the same information to open the new accounts, something that should have immediately triggered red flags for the company.Thousands more contacted after exclusion.But that was only the tip of the iceberg, as the Gambling Commission found problems with how Sky Bet dealt with tens of thousands of other self-excluded customers.
More than 36,000 bettors did not have their remaining balances returned to them after closing their accounts with the firm. In addition, about 50,000 self-excluded individuals continued to get marketing materials from Sky Bet, typically by email, text, or mobile notifications from the company’s app.
Taking all of these incidents into consideration, the Gambling Commission said that this was more than a few isolated cases, making a fairly severe fine appropriate.
Source: onlinegambling.com
Source: European Gaming Industry News