The latest UK Gambling Commission fine has been issued to Bonne Terre Limited, doing business as Sky Betting and Gaming, for failing to comply with the self-exclusion policy.
Sky Vegas, a brand owned by Sky Betting and Gaming, was found to have distributed a promotional offer with the words "Bet £5 and get 100 free spins" to 41,395 self-excluded customers and 249,159 customers who had unsubscribed from the gambling operator's marketing emails, according to the Commission.
The acts were in violation of the UK online casino licensing criteria for socially responsible gaming set by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. Despite this, Sky Betting and Gaming acted immediately and cooperated with the Commission's investigation and rectified the issue.
UKGC Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes emphasised in a statement: “Self-excluded customers are likely to be suffering gambling harm and should absolutely not be sent direct marketing that could tempt them back into gambling.
“We would advise all operators to learn from Sky Betting and Gaming’s costly errors and ensure their systems are robust enough to always prevent the self-excluded, and those who have clearly rejected marketing, from receiving promotional material.”
“This latest fine would have been a lot higher had Sky Betting and Gaming allowed any of the self-excluded customers to actually gamble, failed to cooperate, and not taken decisive action aimed at preventing a repeat.”
This fine is the third in a string of high-profile penalties placed on gambling companies by the UKGC, such as a £9.4 million fine on 888 UK Limited for money laundering and social responsibility failures, and another £2 million fine on BV Gaming Limited (operating under the BetVictor brand) as the
