The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has penalized the local branch of online casino and sports betting giant Entain after a couple of ‘suspicious transactions’.
The media and communications watchdog for Australia has penalized Entain Proprietary Limited with $13,320, which is the maximum penalty under the law, for breaching the principles of the national Interactive Gambling Act 2001.
What happened?
The ACMA revealed that this penalty was assessed after Entain Proprietary Limited’s locally focused services Ladbrokes and Neds were flagged for illegally accepting more than 70, to be exact 78, online bets during play in connection with the final day of the Bangkok LIV Golf Tournament, which took place in October 2022.
Nerida O’Loughlin, who leads the ACMA, explained that her organization first issues a fine in relation to in-play betting rules, which exist in order to ‘protect vulnerable people’.
“Online in-play betting increases the risk for those people experiencing gambling harm as it provides fast outcomes and allows for higher frequency of bets,” O’Loughlin said.
Entain Proprietary Limited admits its mistake!
The company is aware that the mistake happened because its parent site put the incorrect start time into the system, which some punters noticed and took advantage of by placing a wager after the start of the event!
The operator revealed that this went even further! Its Ladbrokes-branded service handled 59 related bets during the game with its Neds-branded compatriot accepting 19 such bets.
The ACMA received information that Entain Proprietary Limited noticed an error after several alerts from customers a few hours after the play had started and only after that they refused wagers on the event.
Upon learning, the operator has complied with the accompanying request to review, improve and update its in-game compliance policy to prevent similar errors in the future.
“Entain is a highly experienced wagering operator and it is disappointing that it did not have internal procedures in place to prevent or detect the error,” O’Loughlin said. “The ACMA made it clear to the industry last year that they must have robust systems in place to ensure online in-play bets are not made available or accepted.”
About Entain
Entain, formerly GVC Holdings, is one of the world’s biggest gaming groups that are licensed in over 40 countries across 5 continents!
The brand offers sports betting, online casino, poker and bingo and operates several big brands such as the above-mentioned Ladbrokes, as well as Coral, bwin, Eurobet, partypoker, Gala, and Foxy Bingo among others.
Source: ”Entain Fined in Australia for In-Play Betting Breaches”, europeangaming.eu, 04. 2023.
The post Entain’s operator fined in Australia for accepting illegal wagers first appeared on RealMoneyAction.com.