> Isle of Man-based IMME committed extensive breaches of licence, finds Gambling Commission review
> An online gambling firm that contacted older people and persuaded them to bet tens of thousands of pounds on lottery results is to escape sanctions, despite a damning regulatory investigation into its practices.
> IMME Ltd, which is based in the Isle of Man and trades as Lotteries.com and The Lottery Centre, committed extensive breaches of its gambling licence, according to the Gambling Commission.
> The firm’s sales agents, who used fake names on the phone, “disproportionately” targeted older people, it said, with 75% of customers aged 60 to 79 and 20% 80 or older.
> One customer, who was 100 when the commission began its review, bet £23,839 in just five months without IMME inquiring about his source of funds. The company knew two of its top depositors were retired postal workers but allowed one to bet £20,345 in five months and the other £16,207 in six months.
> One woman in her 90s was called several times a week, while another was called every 30-40 minutes until the phone was answered.
Get caught, hand in your license and thus get away with everything that’s happened
> Because IMME and its senior staff surrendered their licences, the Gambling Commission can take no further action against them.
Company that takes the piss still continues to take the piss
> The regulator said the company was still running a lottery ticket syndicate business, which it does not require a Gambling Commission licence to do.
The government could have banned fixed-odds betting terminals, instead it chose to set the limit at £2. It’s better than a limit of £200 but there was no reason to not ban them completely, it was lobbying by gambling firms that stopped that. The likes of William Hill donate a lot of money to the Tories and gambling firms treat MPs to sporting events and dinners regularly. Proper sanctions are never going to happen when the government benefit from not imposing them.
Probably be punished by giving management a peerage.
*The firm’s sales agents, who used fake names on the phone, “disproportionately” targeted older people, it said, with 75% of customers aged 60 to 79 and 20% 80 or older.*
*One customer, who was 100 when the commission began its review, bet £23,839 in just five months…*
This is increasingly happening under Conservative government, human welfare is ignored and ordinary people fed to the corporate sharks.
It’s remarkable how many people so betrayed are those likely to be voting Conservative over the years.
>One customer, who was 100 when the commission began its review, bet £23,839
So we saying a 100 year old is a dumb ass and can’t be trusted with his money? It’s the governments job to baby sit him?
Not to mention he’s a 100, maybe he figured that money is no good to him dead, why not spunk it.
Ever noticed how fruit machines have that little black sticker on them, that essentially says they are rigged?
That’s because the regulators investigated them and found this to be the case.
Except that never happened. What did happen was a gamer got hold of a fruit machine emulator and through testing was able to demonstrate they were rigged. This made it into the press which forced the governments hand.
Gambling is an awful blight in society. It’s common knowledge that it isn’t the sensible players who make them money, but the “whales” who can end up ruining their lives that make it so profitable. Even worse now that video games can put gambling mechanisms in that encourage children to start gambling also, which it totally legal, because they don’t win anything “real” despite the money they spend on it being very real indeed.
8 comments
> Isle of Man-based IMME committed extensive breaches of licence, finds Gambling Commission review
> An online gambling firm that contacted older people and persuaded them to bet tens of thousands of pounds on lottery results is to escape sanctions, despite a damning regulatory investigation into its practices.
> IMME Ltd, which is based in the Isle of Man and trades as Lotteries.com and The Lottery Centre, committed extensive breaches of its gambling licence, according to the Gambling Commission.
> The firm’s sales agents, who used fake names on the phone, “disproportionately” targeted older people, it said, with 75% of customers aged 60 to 79 and 20% 80 or older.
> One customer, who was 100 when the commission began its review, bet £23,839 in just five months without IMME inquiring about his source of funds. The company knew two of its top depositors were retired postal workers but allowed one to bet £20,345 in five months and the other £16,207 in six months.
> One woman in her 90s was called several times a week, while another was called every 30-40 minutes until the phone was answered.
Get caught, hand in your license and thus get away with everything that’s happened
> Because IMME and its senior staff surrendered their licences, the Gambling Commission can take no further action against them.
Company that takes the piss still continues to take the piss
> The regulator said the company was still running a lottery ticket syndicate business, which it does not require a Gambling Commission licence to do.
The government could have banned fixed-odds betting terminals, instead it chose to set the limit at £2. It’s better than a limit of £200 but there was no reason to not ban them completely, it was lobbying by gambling firms that stopped that. The likes of William Hill donate a lot of money to the Tories and gambling firms treat MPs to sporting events and dinners regularly. Proper sanctions are never going to happen when the government benefit from not imposing them.
Probably be punished by giving management a peerage.
*The firm’s sales agents, who used fake names on the phone, “disproportionately” targeted older people, it said, with 75% of customers aged 60 to 79 and 20% 80 or older.*
*One customer, who was 100 when the commission began its review, bet £23,839 in just five months…*
This is increasingly happening under Conservative government, human welfare is ignored and ordinary people fed to the corporate sharks.
It’s remarkable how many people so betrayed are those likely to be voting Conservative over the years.
>One customer, who was 100 when the commission began its review, bet £23,839
So we saying a 100 year old is a dumb ass and can’t be trusted with his money? It’s the governments job to baby sit him?
Not to mention he’s a 100, maybe he figured that money is no good to him dead, why not spunk it.
Ever noticed how fruit machines have that little black sticker on them, that essentially says they are rigged?
That’s because the regulators investigated them and found this to be the case.
Except that never happened. What did happen was a gamer got hold of a fruit machine emulator and through testing was able to demonstrate they were rigged. This made it into the press which forced the governments hand.
Gambling is an awful blight in society. It’s common knowledge that it isn’t the sensible players who make them money, but the “whales” who can end up ruining their lives that make it so profitable. Even worse now that video games can put gambling mechanisms in that encourage children to start gambling also, which it totally legal, because they don’t win anything “real” despite the money they spend on it being very real indeed.