LeoVegas Fined By UK Gambling Commission

Tia Winter | 07 May 2018

Online gambling operator LeoVegas has landed itself in the twang with the UK Gambling Commission after allegations of the violation of gambling advertising rules were proven to have been justified. Apart from having been sternly reprimanded, the operator has also been smacked with a £600,000 penalty, which isn’t small change to anyone’s pockets.

Misleading advertising as well as the failure to properly handling customers at the end of their self-exclusion periods in online casinos have been cited as the main culprits.

Deterring Wrong Doing

Besides for being more than half of a million pounds out of pocket, LeoVegas will also be coughing up the costs of the regulatory process that was followed, as well as the costs involved in the review of the operator’s licence to trade.

The aim of the fine is to force the company to part with any funds gleaned as a result of its failure to comply with regulatory restrictions and rules. Chief Executive Officer of the UK Gambling Commission, Neil McArthur, hasn’t cut any corners in indicating that the heavy fine served the purpose of deterring others of erring in the same way. He said that the regulator wanted to convey the message that, going forward, it would be a relentless watchdog, ensuring that regulatory standards and codes of practice would be strictly adhered to.

One Of Many Others

Whilst the fine that was imposed does seem a bit heavy, a lot of perspective is to be had when considering that LeoVegas was found to be guilty of no fewer than 41 commercials that were deemed to be misleading to customers, as well as having forwarded promotional material to going on 1,900 persons who had previously registered their user profiles on self-exclusion lists.

What’s more, the commission found that LeoVegas had failed to return the funds that remained in the customers’ accounts at the time of self-exclusion registration to the relevant customers. This constitutes a serious offence, as it is often the reason behind customers re-opening their user accounts.

What’s more, it’s apparent that the operator has not applied the necessary vigilance even as far as the self-exclusion registrations themselves are concerned, having allowed customers who were registered on self-exclusion lists to gain access to their player profiles after the fact, without so much as bothering to contact the relevant customers or applying the mandated cool-off period.

LeoVegas isn’t the first operator to have attracted a hefty fine as a result of similar wrongdoings. Earlier this year, it was the turn of GVC Holdings, William Hill, and Gala Interactive, to have suffered similar punishments and fines.

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