Betfred has told iGaming Expert that there was “no evidence of criminal spend” in any of its betting shops after a UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) investigation discovered social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.
The UKGC investigation resulted in a £825,000 fine for Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Limited, who run Betfred’s land-based operations, as well as a warning and the operator will undergo a third-party audit to ensure AML and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls are being implemented effectively.
Between May 2024 and March 2025, AML failures listed by the commission through its investigation included:
- Unable to effectively identify and manage money laundering risks associated with customers using B3 gaming machines. Machine alerts and daily reports were used, but practices in 2024 meant the operator was unable to assess overall customer spend and the associated money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
- Not having an effective policy in place to identify and handle customers who may be subject to financial sanctions.
- Thresholds for enquiries regarding customers’ income source not being appropriately risk-based – thresholds set at £15,000 losses and at £125,000 stakes in 365 days.
Between May 2024 and November 2024, the UKGC discovered the following social responsibility failures:
- Not being able to adequately identify spend and any associated financial indicators of gambling harm for customers using B3 gaming machines.
- Customer interactions were not always taking place after a risk indicator was identified, or when they did, interactions were not conducted in a way which minimised gambling-related harm risk.
- Quality of interactions, in particular, understanding the interaction’s impact, did not meet the standards required.
Betfred defence
In response to the investigation, Betfred has told iGaming Expert that it has made improvements to its operations and that it did not discover any information that pointed towards criminal spend.
“Following a review of our UK-based betting shops by the Gambling Commission, we have further strengthened our Anti-Money Laundering and Social Responsibility policies,” said a Betfred spokesperson.
“During the review, the Commission found no evidence of criminal spend in our shops. Betfred is committed to ensuring a safe gambling experience for all our customers.”
This is the second time Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Limited has faced regulatory action, as the operator paid a £3.25m regulatory settlement for social responsibility and AML failures in 2023.
John Pierce, Director of Enforcement at the UKGC, said: “While the failings identified during the 2024 Compliance Assessment were predominantly technical breaches rather than arising from specific customer examples, they were nevertheless unacceptable, particularly with thresholds appearing too high and insufficiently risk-based when assessed in practice, and deficiencies in some processes and procedures adopted by the Licensee.
“We fully acknowledge the improvements the operator has already made since these issues were identified, and the independent audit will be key to confirming these changes are sustained so that the operator continues to be fully compliant with social responsibility and anti-money laundering requirements.”
Online regulatory action
Betfred’s online platform operator, Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited, also recently received a £240,000 penalty from the UKGC for having online slot features which breached its Remote Technical Standards (RTS), including “hosting games which failed to display the consumer’s net position and games which celebrated losses as wins”.
RTS requires all gaming sessions to clearly show a customer’s net position, and a gambling system must not celebrate returns that are less than or equal to the total stake gambled.
Concerns about the celebratory effects’ fairness when a customer was in an overall losing position were raised by the UKGC, which stated that it may “negatively impact a player’s ability to interpret their gameplay accurately and make informed choices”.
According to the report, action was immediately taken by Petfre (Gibraltar) to decommission the affected titles.
A Betfred spokesperson told iGaming Expert: “When we identified the issue with games provided by a third-party supplier, we acted quickly to remove them and reported the issue to the Gambling Commission. This experience has helped us improve and strengthen our safeguards.
“We’re committed to player protection and ensuring the very best and most transparent experience for all our customers.”
