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Paddy Power fined for failing to prevent stolen money being gambled through its website

Published: 19:19 16 Oct 2018 AEDT

gambling addict
As part of the settlement, Paddy Power will pay £1.7mln to the GambleAware charity

Paddy Power Betfair plc (LON:PPB) has been fined £2.2mln for failing to stop stolen money being gambled on its website and not protecting customers showing signs of problem gambling.

The Gambling Commission said flaws in the bookmaker’s procedures meant “significant amounts of stolen money” flowed through the Paddy Power site.

 The regulator added that this was “simply not acceptable”. Paddy Power apologised and said it had tightened its controls.

READ: Paddy Power upgraded to 'hold' by Berenberg

An investigation also found that Paddy Power had failed to adequately interact with customers who had shown signs of problem gambling.

“These failings all stem from one simple principle - operators must know their customer,” said Richard Watson, Gambling Commission executive director.

“If they know their customer and ask the right questions then they place themselves in a strong position to meet their anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations.”

As part of the settlement, Paddy Power will make a £1.7mln payment to independent charity GambleAware.

“We have a responsibility to intervene when our customers show signs of problem gambling. In these five cases, our interventions were not effective, and we are very sorry that this occurred,” said boss Peter Jackson.

“In recent years, we have invested in an extensive programme of work to strengthen our resources and systems in responsible gambling and customer protection. We are encouraged that the Gambling Commission has recognised significant improvement since the time of these cases in 2016.”

Shares rose 1.1% to 6,360p on Tuesday Morning.

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