Entain, a gambling operator, has been ordered to pay a total of £17.0m after the Gambling Commission found social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings within its online and land-based businesses.
The Commission identified £14.0m worth of failures within Entain’s online arm, LC International Limited, which operates Ladbrokes.com, Coral.co.uk, and Foxybingo.com. An additional £3.0m was ordered for failures at its land-based division, Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming Limited, which operates numerous gambling premises across Great Britain.
This payment package is the highest-ever ordered by the Commission. However, Will Prochaska, strategy director at Gambling with Lives, believes that it is not enough and suggests that the regulator should consider additional ways of punishing operators.
Andrew Rhodes, chief executive of the Gambling Commission, stated that if Entain continues to violate rules and regulations, the company could potentially lose its license in Great Britain.
Prochaska argues that this payment alone does not solve the structural problem within the industry. He claims that the industry relies heavily on profits from a small percentage of customers who are addicted or at risk of addiction. Prochaska believes that until operating licenses are revoked, operators will not change their business models.
There are currently 1.4 million people in the UK suffering from gambling addiction, and on a daily basis, at least one person takes their own life as a result of gambling. Prochaska describes this as a public health crisis and urges the new leaders, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, to publish the long-awaited Gambling Act Review in its entirety.
Due to Boris Johnson’s resignation as prime minister, the publication of the review has been delayed. The gambling white paper is currently awaiting Johnson’s final approval.
