Ladbrokes Pays Under The Table To Hush Problem Gambler
The betting industry has come under increased pressure to help problem gamblers in recent times, so those at the top won’t have been pleased by the news that Ladbrokes paid the victims of a problem gambler £1 million in return for a promise that they wouldn’t inform the industry’s regulatory body that he’d stolen from them in order to fund his habit.
The British citizen lived a high-roller lifestyle that was costing him as much as £60,000 per day, betting that much that Ladbrokes gave him gifts such as business class flights and tickets to football matches.
The problem was that he was stealing from the clients of his Dubai-based property business in order to fund his habit.
The GC Has ‘Clear Expectations’ Of Its Licensees
The Guardian newspaper obtained a copy of the settlement agreement between Ladbrokes and the 5 victims that complained to them about the fact that they had accepted stolen funds.
In it it is stated that the bookmaker was willing to pay them £975,000 on the condition that no ‘complaint or report’ was made to the industry’s regulator.
That regulator, of course, is the Gambling Commission and they refused to give specifics to the newspaper for its report, but did say that it has ‘clear expectations’ of the licence holders that come under its jurisdiction.
Ladbrokes themselves said that they were cooperating with the Gambling Commission over the matter, in spite of the evidence seen by the Guardian that suggests the opposite is true.
Ladbrokes Incentivised The Gambler To Bet
The Guardian was able to get hold of photo evidence that showed just how far Ladbrokes had gone in an attempt to persuade the gambler to bet more money.
Free tickets for major sporting events such as Arsenal matches and boxing bouts in Las Vegas as well as an invitation into the company box at Ascot were all forthcoming. The bookie even paid for his flights from Dubai to London in time for him to attend the North London derby.
The enticements used by the bookmaker aren’t an unusual method in the industry, with most companies offering similar things to get high-rollers to bet often and extravagantly.
The likes of thousands of pounds worth of credit into his account as well as Christmas hampers from Fortnum and Mason were used to that effect, coming after a period of 5 months when he had stopped betting altogether and claims to have told his Ladbrokes account manager that he feared he had a gambling problem.
There are specific rules and regulations in place to stop betting companies from encouraging problem gamblers from betting, which text messages between the client and his account manager seem to suggest were ignored.
Part of the rules around money-laundering mean that bookmaking companies are obliged to do checks in order to discover the source of a customer’s funds, especially if they’re placing large bets. The account manager referenced this in a text message saying it was important to know the ‘provenance’ of his funds.
Ladbrokes Ignored Gambling Commission Rules
In one text message exchange between the gambler and his account manager the Ladbrokes employee asked for a bank statement to check his income ‘to comply with regulator policy’, but then followed that up with another one saying that he no longer needed it.
When the gambler stopped using his account and failed to communicate with his account manager, the Ladbrokes staff member sent a text saying ‘I’ve put a £5k bonus in your sports account’.
The text messages from the account manager to the customer took place within weeks of the gambler having lost close to £60,000 in a single day. The customer himself told the Guardian that he should have been stopped or at the very least asked questions, such was the extent to which the amount of ‘time and money’ he spent gambling had increased by a ‘huge’ amount.
In order to sign his part of the settlement with Ladbrokes the customer had to leave a rehab clinic that he’s been admitted to. He said, “I never asked or received a penny, I lost my home, my family and my company because of my gambling”.
The Customer Told The Gambling Commission
It was actually the customer himself who ‘shopped’ Ladbrokes to the Gambling Commission, breaking the terms of his agreement with the bookmaker in order to do so. He’s still being treated for gambling addiction by the Gordon Moody Association, who offer quality support to those with a problem.
He told the Guardian that his decision to break his agreement was in the public interest, saying, “I hope by me reporting this to the Gambling Commission that some of the victims rightfully get their full money back, but also that this shows them that the operator has no respect for their codes of practice”.
Ladbrokes Are Not The First To Break The Rules
Whilst this is one of the most high-profile examples of a gaming company failing to protect the interests of one of its clients, it is by no means the only one.
The likes of Paddy Power, SkyBet and William Hill have all had to pay huge penalties to the Gambling Commission because of a failure to help problem gamblers or a failure to stop people from potentially money-laundering.
The notion of gambling companies enticing VIP bettors to spend more money has also been seen before, with hospitality and free gifts a common offering.
This is because the companies know that they are likely to place a bet and would prefer it for the customer to do it with them rather than one of their rivals, believing that the money that they’ll make in lost bets by the gamblers will more than cover any losses spent on tickets and some preferential treatment.
