On the UK betting/gambling landscape, there are many online casinos and bookmakers that scream quality. Names like Betfair, 888Sport, and Betway are surely some of them. Betway was, for years, the main choice of millions of gamblers and bettors, even outside the UK.
However, the bookmaker did some… well, not-that-great things, that resulted in a pretty hefty fine for the company. Allegedly, this bookmaker accepted stolen money, for which it was fined with an enormous £11.6m.
What Happened?
As people who love this bookmaker and bet on it almost on a daily basis, we found this news untrue at first. But, looking at numerous sources online, claims of Betway accepting stolen money are true.
How did the UKGC detect that?
Well, it has to do with one VIP member that deposited more than £8m. During a four-year time, he lost more than £4m, which is an enormous amount of money. People who gamble online will rarely have that much money to spend on gambling and that is, by itself, very suspicious.
Moreover, this isn’t the only case that led the UKGC into suspicion. Another user lost more than £187,000 in just TWO days because Betway failed to perform necessary background checks.
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission did further investigation, only to find out that Betway allowed £5m to circulate through its business. As they suspect, this is all thanks to the means of crime.
VIP Programs are Guilty!
Many people know that different regulatory bodies in the UK are debating on whether or not the VIP programs should continue to exist. The UKGC deems VIP programs quite dangerous, as they promote high-stakes gambling, which often leads to huge financial losses for customers.
Because of that, they harshly penalized Betway for failing to protect addicted users and limit their deposits/withdrawals. VIP members are, for the most part, assigned different agents and managers that help them gamble economically, and not waste huge amounts of money.
However, researches showed that many VIP members are usually the ones that are addicted to gambling. Furthermore, these exact users often use stolen money to pay for this expensive hobby.
Richard Watson, the executive director of the UKGC, says that high-value customers should be handled and treated properly to prevent similar problems. The Gambling Commission works hard to bring to the front new laws and legislations that would focus more on protecting gamblers in general.
Is Betway Still a Licensed Gambling Operator?
There’s been a lot of rumors regarding Betway’s gambling license. Director of Safer Online Gambling Groupe, Adam Bradford, says that Betway’s license should be suspended until proven innocent.
He further adds that failures like these are unacceptable and that Betway needs to undergo a serious investigation by authorities. In his words, this is a drop in the ocean but its significance is undoubted when it comes to betting for those who can’t afford it.
Thankfully, Betway recently fixed all of its legal issues, and is, once again, a licensed casino/bookmaker.
Feel free to read our full Betway review in order to see what we think about it.
