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UKGC Bites Again: Sky Bet Penalized with a £1 Million Fine

The topic of player safety is always a burning one in the online gambling industry. Regulating bodies have been around for decades trying to protect users from being mistreated by gambling businesses, but one can argue that perhaps none have taken this job more seriously than the UK Gambling Commission, who regularly penalizes business who don’t comply with its rules, even when major brands are in question.

This time around it was the gambling giant Sky Bet who found themselves in such a position. According to the Commission’s findings, the company failed to protect is players in multiple ways, for which they were penalized with a £1.000.000 fine, designed as a warning to them and all other gambling businesses with the UKGC license.

Failure to Protect Self-Excluded Players and More

The main failing of Sky Bet, according to the UKGC, had to do with the players who had self-excluded from playing at the site. According to UKGC regulations, every business has to allow players to self-exclude from play, in which case the site must not allow them to continue playing.

In the case of Sky Bet, it was reported in the BBC that some 736 customers who had used the self-exclusion option were able to create duplicate accounts and continue to gamble with the operator. In addition, the site also sent promotional e-mails to over 50.000 addresses who had asked not to receive such e-mails and thousands of players who had self-excluded appear not to have received their outstanding balances yet.

The £1.000.000 was accepted by Sky Bet, with chief executive Richard Flint admitting that the company should have done more in these cases and promising that they would do so in the future. The UKGC continues to carefully monitor the market and penalize all brands who don’t comply with regulations 100%, to the great benefit of the players.