A report by the Guardian news outlet about the misdoings of a Ladbrokes VIP customer has come to light. According to the article, Ladbrokes paid almost £1 million to five people who had their money stolen from another customer. Thus, Ladbrokes is under Investigation by the Gambling Commission of England to see why they did not disclose the information.
Furthermore, the person who stole the money is a British man who runs a property business in Dubai. The Ladbrokes VIP client stole the money from his clients in order to fuel his gambling habit. In addition, five of these clients made a complaint to Ladbrokes.
This led to the Ladbrokes paying them a total sum of £975,000. Thus, the money was paid to the victims so they would not file a report the English Gambling Commission. According to Sportsbook Pay Per Head websites, this has led to GVC Holdings stocks falling by almost 5%.
The UK Gambling Commission is investigating
This year, the UK Gambling Commission has made a dramatic push to increase penalties for UK licensees. Furthermore, before this story came to light, Ladbrokes was already under investigation for allowing their players to take high-interest loans. This is because players at betting shops could take loans over the phone so they could keep betting on sports.
For the current case, the UK GC said that they are enquiring into the matter to “ascertain the full circumstances”. Furthermore, they expect its licensees to “to work with us in an open and cooperative way”. This includes the “need to disclose to us anything which we would reasonably expect to know.”
On the other hand, Labrokes said that when settlement agreements are made, all parties agree to “keep its content confidential”. Furthermore, they said that they did notify the UKGC at the “relevant time and will continue to co-operate with them”.
This latest scandal comes at a difficult time for the sports betting industry in the UK. This is because just last week, several gambling victims are seeking legal remedies against sportsbooks in the UK. This involves William Hill and Paddy Power Betfair because gamblers lost over £1.5 million in stolen funds.
