The UK Gambling Commission has issued a fine to the operators of Paddy Power. The popular bookmaker was hit with a £490,000 fine for marketing to self-excluded customers in November 2021.
Human Error Proves Costly
Paddy Power Betfair, now operating as Flutter Entertainment, unintentionally sent a push notification to users of their app on Apple devices on 21 November 2021. The notification offered enhanced odds on Premier League bets and was sent to players who had self-excluded via Gamstop. The Paddy Power group said that it was sent by human error, and they quickly attempted to rectify the problem.
The company were responsible for informing the commission of the mistake, which led to an investigation that found they had not complied with two important paragraphs of the Social Responsibility Code Provision. These sections require license holders to take all reasonable steps to prevent marketing material from reaching self-excluded customers. They also demand casino operators remove users from marketing databases within 48 hours of receiving self-exclusion notifications.
Accepting Responsibility
Flutter Entertainment CEO, Ian Brown, said that the notification was sent by mistake and that the company acted quickly to fix the situation and inform the UKGC. He also noted that neither Paddy Power nor the UKGC received any complaints about the notifications. He added that the company want to operate with as much responsibility as possible.
Executive Director of Operations at the UKGC, Kay Roberts, said that there was no evidence it was an intentional breach of license but that the body takes contacting self-excluded customers very seriously. She also urges operators to learn from PPB’s failures and ensure their systems are robust enough to stop self-excluded players from being contacted.
Paddy Power Betfair initially appealed a heavier fine despite accepting that they had breached their license. The £490,000 is a lower penalty than PPB accepted. Flutter has introduced a number of new measures for protecting the public from the harm of gambling. These include a mandatory deposit limit for all accounts held by someone under the age of 25 and a stake limit of £10 on all online slots.
A New Period of Regulation
This is not the first case of casinos contacting customers who have chosen to self-exclude. In March last year, the business that operates Sky Betting and Sky Gaming, Bonne Terre Limited, were found to have sent marketing material to 41,395 self-excluded customers and 249,159 customers who were unsubscribed from their emails. This saw the company fined £1.17 million.
Paddy Power’s fine comes just a few months after the UKGC fined William Hill a record £19.2m for a series of ‘alarming’ social responsibility and anti-money-laundering failings.
The UKGC is preparing to enter a new era of regulation following the publication of the Gambling White Paper at the start of May 2023. The paper highlighted several new restrictions that will be put in place, with customer care and responsible gambling being at the centre of many of these new laws.
