{"id":638056,"date":"2025-12-17T11:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/638056\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:56:12","slug":"paddy-power-fined-by-uk-regulator-over-problem-gambling-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/638056\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddy Power fined by UK regulator over problem gambling \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Flutter Entertainment\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/paddy-power\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/paddy-power\">Paddy Power<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/betfair\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/betfair\">Betfair <\/a>have been fined \u00a32 million (\u20ac2.3 million) after a UK Gambling Commission investigation found they hadn\u2019t identified potential problem gambling quickly enough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The probe found that customer-protection systems failed to flag clear indicators of harm quickly enough, allowing several customers to deposit large sums or gamble intensively without timely intervention, according to a UK Gambling Commission statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The regulator highlighted cases including a customer who deposited \u00a325,000 within 25 days and another betting \u00a386,000 over 16 days before the accounts were reviewed by staff to assess the social responsibility risk \u2013 a licensing requirement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Betting brands licensed in the UK must watch for customers at risk of becoming problem gamblers, with indicators including spending binges, overnight betting, and long betting sessions. They must also take measures to protect those customers, such as curtailing their gambling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cOur controls have evolved significantly and we recently introduced a next generation customer safety platform, with the vast majority of checks now happening in real-time,\u201d said a spokesperson for Flutter in a statement, adding that the company is \u201cconfident\u201d that the issues raised by the regulator would \u201cnot be repeated today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The UK gambling industry faces mounting regulatory scrutiny, with the Gambling Commission issuing a series of hefty fines, investigations and license reviews over the past few years. The crackdown reflects growing concern about money-laundering risks, consumer protection failures and illegal gambling activity. Operators are also getting squeezed by tax hikes in the British government\u2019s latest budget.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cOperators must ensure systems to identify and address harm work effectively and at the right time,\u201d said John Pierce, the commission\u2019s director of enforcement. \u201cOver-reliance on automation and failure to intervene when clear harm indicators are present exposes consumers to unnecessary risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This marks the operator\u2019s second penalty in two years, following a \u00a3490,000 fine in 2023 for marketing to vulnerable consumers. Other companies hit by recent Gambling Commission fines include Bet365 and Merkur Slots, which operates high-street gaming centres. \u2013 Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flutter Entertainment\u2019s Paddy Power and Betfair have been fined \u00a32 million (\u20ac2.3 million) after a UK Gambling Commission&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[35434,196652,105,218,43206,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-638056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-betfair","9":"tag-flutter","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-paddy-power","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115734786353929592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}