Paddy Power fined £2.2m for money laundering, social responsibility failures

(Sharecast News) - Paddy Power Betfair has been fined £2.2m by the Gambling Commission for failing to protect customers with signs of problem gambling and for failing to stop stolen money being gambled.An investigation by the commission found that the company failed to adequately interact with customers displaying signs of problem gambling and to carry out anti-money laundering checks.In 2016, two customers were allowed to gamble significant sums of stolen money on Paddy Power's betting exchange Betfair. One of them had stolen from his employer, a charity, to which the money will now be returned.Two of the customers were using Paddy Power Betfair's betting exchange, and a further three were using the operator's online presence and retail premises.As part of the settlement, Paddy Power will return £500,000 to the impacted parties and make a £1.7m payment to charity GambleAware, which commissions research, education and treatment services to reduce gambling-related harm in Great Britain.Gambling Commission executive director Richard Watson said: "As a result of Paddy Power Betfair's failings significant amounts of stolen money flowed through their exchange and this is simply not acceptable. Operators have a duty to all of their customers to seek to prevent the proceeds of crime from being used in gambling."These failings all stem from one simple principle - operators must know their customer. 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."Paddy Power Betfair chief executive officer Peter Jackson said: "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. 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. This work is continuous and we are committed to working in partnership with other operators, and with the Commission, to become better and better at protecting customers."At 0930 BST, the shares were up 0.9% to 6,345p.