Steep sanction for SkyVegas.com
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SkyVegas.com was fined $1.5 million for sending marketing materials to recovering gambling addicts. The incident occurred during the local iGaming industry’s Safer Gambling Week.
SkyVegas.com dispersed a ‘Bet £5 get 100 free spins’ promotional offer to 41,395 customers that had voluntarily opted to use its self-exclusion system. A further 249,159 punters who had opted out of the domain”s marketing schemes were sent the same e-mail.
SkyVegas.com was fined $2.6 million for money laundering and social responsibility shortcomings. The incident comes at a sensitive time for the British gambling industry as it awaits the government's imminent publication of a raft of gambling reform proposals.
Andrew Rhodes is the Chief Executive for the Gambling Commission. He warned that self-excluded customers who have taken advantage of sites' self exclusion schemes are likely to be suffering gambling harm. Rhodes also warned other UK-licensed operators to learn from the ‘costly errors’ of their counterparts and work towards ensuring that their systems are robust enough to eliminate “self- excluded” customers and those who reject marketing.
Flutter Entertainment has let down some customers. The company has apologized to them and notified regulators. It has also put in place measures to prevent it from happening again. The Gambling Commission will investigate the matter.
