Sky Bet stopped working to safeguard vulnerable consumers, says guard dog

Sky Bet is to pay ₤ 1m for "stopping working to protect vulnerable customers", the Gambling Commission has stated.

It did not stop issue gamblers even after they had asked to be prohibited from its websites, the watchdog stated.

Sky Bet president Richard Flint stated the company accepted that it "needed to do more" to stop self-excluded bettors from opening duplicate accounts.

He included that Sky Bet had actually tried to return the cash in their accounts.

People who feel they are having difficulty managing their gaming can ask betting firms to refuse their service.

But 736 self-excluded Sky Bet clients were able to open and utilize duplicate accounts, the Gambling Commission said.

In addition, about 50,000 individuals who had omitted themselves received marketing emails, texts or push alerts through a mobile app.

And 36,748 customers did not get the balance on their account returned after self-excluding.

Richard Watson, Gambling Commission program director, said: "This was a serious failure affecting thousands of possibly vulnerable customers and the ₤ 1m charge package must function as an alerting to all gambling companies.

"Sky Bet reported the concerns to us rapidly, co-operated with us and has taken this promotion code investigation seriously."

Betting temptation

Matt, a trainee accounting professional from London, began betting as quickly as he turned 18. He states he lost as much as ₤ 30,000.

"It's a 'lad culture' thing," the 22-year-old just recently informed the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire program.

"You can't go to the club on a Saturday afternoon without having the football on the TV, and after that undoubtedly there's adverts that come on and you get the desire to wager.

"I could not watch a video game of football without having a bet on it.

"It was embarrassing to open up [to friends] and state, 'I'm actually having a hard time with this betting issue.' They were associated with gambling as well," he said.

Gambling: Financial enjoyable or pricey excess?

Mr Flint stated Sky Bet had notified the Gambling Commission when the company had seen the problem.

"In this promotion code case, we didn't make it sufficiently tough for people to open replicate accounts, and for that, we've apologised, it's not good enough. We could and should have done more," he told the BBC. "It is awkward for us."

Customers were able to open replicate accounts by at first offering false information, then calling the contact centre with accurate details, and confirming that details with accurate documentation.

"We at that time didn't have appropriate processes in place to inspect that there wasn't already an existing account that was a duplicate and was self-excluded," Mr Flint stated.

the yohaig code company also didn't have "sufficient partition" in its databases which led to inappropriate marketing, he said.

The firm will donate the ₤ 1m to charities for socially accountable functions, Mr Flint stated in a statement

"We desire to assure individuals that we have actually not made any revenue out of this promotion code episode," Mr Flint said.

He included that Sky Bet had increased resources "and focus on assisting our consumers to gamble safely", consisting of a television and online advertising campaign.

Sky Bet also had "a group of [more than] 60 people keeping track of represent uncommon behaviour," he stated.

The Leeds-based operation, which is majority-owned by CVC Capital Partners, runs sites including Sky Vegas and Sky Bingo.

According to figures launched in November, more gamblers are opting to "prohibit" themselves from betting, with more than a million demands in 2016.

the yohaig code market is preparing to let people who wish to self-exclude use a single site from spring 2018.

The plan, which all operators will be required to provide, is called Gamstop, external.

At present, bettors have to call every business they hold an account with to ask to be omitted.

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