Ladbrokes Coral fined £5.9 million

The company that own Ladbrokes Coral has been issued a fine of £5.9 million for failing to protect vulnerable customers and for failing in its anti-money laundering duty.

The Gambling Commission stated that over a three-year period, Ladbrokes Coral failed to put in place effective safeguards that would “prevent customers suffering gambling harm”.

As part of its verdict, it citied one customer who had lost £98,000 and had asked Coral to stop sending further promotional communication. This customer had 460 attempted deposits declined but were still able to lose this sum of money two and a half years later.

Another customer spent over £1.5million over three years, accessing their account 10 times a day and losing £64,000 in a four-week period. Yet despite this, nothing was done to prevent them from accessing the site.

The Commission stated that Coral “did not ask the customer to evidence their source of funds and could not provide evidence of any social responsibility interactions being carried out”.

However, the firm failed to carry out “social responsibility interactions”.

The problems are said to have occurred between November 2014 and October 2017, after GVC Holdings had bought Ladbrokes Coral.

As a result, they will now pay £4.8 million and divest £1.1million “gained from customers as a result of failings”.

Richard Watson, executive director of the Gambling Commission, said: “These were systemic failings at a large operator which resulted in consumers being harmed and stolen money flowing though the business and this is unacceptable.”

Kenyan Govt orders deportation of 17 foreign betting firm directors

It will be a long trip back home for 17 foreign directors of betting firms whose licences were not renewed after the government pushed its crackdown on the gambling industry a notch higher by ordering their deportation.

On Tuesday night, the Immigration department began flying home some of the foreign nationals whom sources told the Nation were detained in the hours after Interior CS Fred Matiang’i signed the order shortly after 2pm.

The decision was reached after the National Security Advisory Committee (NSAC), with the blessings of President Uhuru Kenyatta, decided there would be no backing down on the war against rogue betting companies.

This is after what has been a week of high octane open warfare fought in the courts, in public through tough statements and advertisements punctuated by back-room lobbying and arm-twisting failed to bring the State and betting companies to the negotiating table.

According to sources, among those deported on Tuesday were directors from Bulgaria, Italy, Russia and Poland.

The deportation orders said that those sent back home were in Kenya illegally since the licences of the companies they were running were cancelled.

The orders also said that whatever they were doing was in contravention of their work permits.

The Interior ministry refused to disclose the names of those deported citing security concerns.

“This is still an ongoing operation so we won’t disclose their names for now because those being deported have to be arrested first,” Interior spokesperson Wangui Muchiri told the Nation.

On Tuesday morning, banks started to freeze the accounts which are thought to hold billions of shillings following an order by CBK on Monday night.

And that’s not all. In what was a very fluid day SportPesa, Betin and Betpawa moved to court seeking to reverse an earlier decision by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) to block their paybill numbers and short codes.

In separate suits, the firms asked High Court judge Weldon Korir to hold BCLB bosses for contempt for putting their businesses at risk of being arrested for operating without a licence.

They also faulted the BCLB for blocking the paybills despite the pending legal battle in court.

However, justice Korir declined to heed to their pleas on wanting BCLB bosses punished over the issues they were protesting about.

Instead, he ordered that the betting board together with telcos Safaricom and Airtel be allowed time to respond to the case first before any punishment is imposed on them.

Liverpool joins Barca and Spurs on 1XBet sponsor roster

Following up on their 1XBet has announced a five-year sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona, 1XBet has unveiled a new multi-year partnership with Liverpool. No value or term for the Liverpool deal has been released.

1XBET will become the Official Global Betting Partner of Liverpool and will receive stadium branding at Anfield and on Liverpool’s digital platforms, as well as access to first-team players and club legends for promotions.

Billy Hogan, managing director and chief commercial officer, Liverpool, said: “We are delighted to welcome 1XBET to Liverpool FC as our newest partner. I know that their games and special offers will appeal to our fans around the world and we look forward to seeing these as we go into the new 2019/2020 season.”

1XBET has multiple markets in pre-match and live betting odds, alongside online games including live casino tables and virtual slot machines. Creating specific markets and odds for Liverpool fans will be a key part of the activation of the sponsorship.

Alex Sommers, 1XBET spokesman, said: “We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with the club to meet our goal of bringing fans closer to the sporting action through our innovative products and supercharged betting experience. We’re very proud of the relationship we have with Liverpool Football Club and we’re keen to work closely with fans around the world to bring them exciting entertainment opportunities and unique offers in the upcoming season.”

SAZKA confirms OPAP takeover intent

Czech gambling conglomerate SAZKA Group has clarified its intentions to secure ‘full control’ of Athens-listed OPAP SA, Greece’s largest lottery and sports betting operator.

On Monday, the Athens Securities Exchange temporarily suspended OPAP’s listing, announcing that the gambling group anticipated a ‘major imminent corporate event’.

This morning, Reuters disclosed that SAZKA governance had submitted a formal Athens Exchange filing detailing its intentions to acquire OPAP outright.

At present SAZKA maintains a 33% holding in OPAP, which is secured through its Emma Delta subsidiary and co-owned with Greek shipping tycoon Georgios Melissanidis.

The Czech conglomerate, which operates one of European gambling’s biggest investment portfolios, secured its original holding in OPAP during 2013, as the Greek government was forced to privatise a number of state-owned enterprises, required under the terms of Greece’s IMF bailout.

In its filing, SAZKA governance has propositioned an opening ‘€9.12 per share’ offer to OPAP investors, significantly below the speculated ‘40% premium of €14-per-share’ offer reported on Monday by Greek business news sources.

Having restructured its ownership, SAZKA is controlled by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek Jr KKCG fund which is reported to aggressively expanding its holdings in established European gambling enterprises.

Having received SAZKA confirmation offer, The Athens Exchange will resume trading on OPAP shares today.

Local doctor denied massive payout on Kentucky Derby bets

Friedlander stopped at the Tamarack Junction and made several bets on the race, including an exacta bet, where you need to pick the top two horses, and a trifecta bet, where you pick the top three.

Before the race’s lengthy review, he thought he had lost all his bets, but when the decision was overturned and Country House was announced as the winner – he realized he had won the exacta and trifecta bets.

The trifecta bet combo of horses he picked was so unlikely, it paid 11,500 – 1. Given that he had $40 on it, that would pay him about $460,000. Combine that with the roughly $150,000 on the exacta bet, and Friedlander was set to win over $600,000.

“They looked at it and told me they have betting caps on these types of bets,” he explained.

That is because that book is not a pari-mutuel sports book, meaning they are liable for making their own payouts, without sharing revenue from other William Hill locations, so it’s that fine print that cost Friedlander his massive score – as they cap some of their bets.

“They told me that I won $35,000, which is amazing, but it’s a far cry from $600,000 I thought I had won.”

William Hill declined our request for an interview, but did release a statement:

"Because of the requirements of the gaming regulations, there are significant costs involved to offer pari-mutuel wagering in Nevada. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make economic sense to offer pari-mutuel wagering at all of our 115 Nevada locations.

"William Hill has 17 pari-mutuel locations in Nevada. At a number of additional William Hill locations, we offer booked wagering on the five major race days (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, and Friday/Saturday of Breeders’ Cup) as a convenience to our customers in a manner consistent with the gaming regulations.

"At the locations where we book these select races, we pay official track prices, subject to certain caps that are prominently displayed. Those caps, which limit exacta payout odds to 150/1 and trifecta payout odds to 500/1, generally are consistent or greater to those that have been historically offered by our competitors that book. The capping of booked race payouts has been industry standard for decades and allows race books to book without taking on unlimited liability, which no one would want to do.

"Tamarack Junction, a small casino in Reno, is one of the locations where we have booked the Kentucky Derby for many years. We congratulate our customer at the Tamarack Junction for his winning exacta and trifecta bets.

"The customer has the right to appeal to the Nevada Gaming Control Board but we are confident that we have fully complied with the relevant gaming regulations and had prominent signage alerting customers to the payoff caps."

Friedlander did not yet cash his tickets for the $35,000. He says he’s going to fight the case with Gaming Control Board.

“It's up to the Gaming Control Board. Essentially it's gonna come down to are their signs conspicuous enough or not,” he explained.

According to longtime bookmaker Chris Andrews, he may have a better shot with the control board than you might expect.

“Most people think that gaming sides with the casino, that’s not the case,” said Andrews. “They usually side with the customer.”

Friedlander says he is told he will get a decision in 45 days.

“William Hill is trying to position themselves as America’s sportsbook,” Friedlander stated in closing. “I just hope when other novices go in and try to make bets, they don’t run into this type of problem.”

How the 'Las Vegas of Italy' is kicking its slot machine addiction

At the start of this year, Massimo was standing on a bridge “determined to jump off”. The 45-year-old had been struggling with gambling addiction since 2001.

“I started to play slot machines and video poker after the death of my father and ended up spending €5,000 a day,” says the artisan fence-maker, from the city of Pavia in northern Italy. He was soon in debt to loan sharks and ended up stealing to fund his habit, including from his own mother, before considering suicide.

Now Massimo (not his real name) lives in La Casa del Giovane, a unit that houses 100 patients suffering from addictions. Around half of the cases involve gambling – a symptom of an epidemic that has gripped Pavia for more than a decade.

For centuries the city was best known as “Oxford on Ticino”: it hosts one of the country’s most prestigious universities, founded in 1361, and a beautiful medieval castle. Built about 25 miles south of Milan on the ancient Via Francigena pilgrim route running from France to Rome, its historic centre is currently a candidate to become a Unesco world heritage site.

That reputation changed in 2013 when the city was identified as Italy’s “capital of gambling”, with a video or slot gambling machine for every 104 inhabitants. Although Italians never flocked there to gamble – Pavia is no Vegas or Atlantic City – local media nicknamed it “the Italian Las Vegas”.

“We had realised something new was going on in 2004, when a 14-year-old boy brought in his father, who was showing clear signs of gambling addiction,” recalls Simone Feder, a psychologist heading the facility’s addiction programme. “Soon after, a very bourgeois-looking elderly couple asked for our help: the husband had gambled away all their money.” Since then Feder says he has treated patients of all ages and walks of life.

Pavia was shocked to hit the headlines this way, but not everybody simply accepted the news: a small group of residents self-organised into a grassroots movement called SenzaSlot (“without slot machines”) to fight the addiction. Their efforts are finally bearing fruit.

“One day I went into a bar and I could not hear the noise of the spoon with which I was mixing sugar in my coffee because of the noise of coins being inserted into slot machines,” says the group’s Pietro Pace, a computer scientist. “Inside there were people who were burning their entire salary.”

Many residents blame the city’s problems on the shift it has experienced since the 1970s, when its mechanical goods industry hit troubled times and its population fell from a high of around 87,000 (it is currently 72,000). Now the main sources of employment are the hospital and the university, and Pavia has become a dormitory city for Milan, the industrial powerhouse to its north.

“On a cultural level, there’s not much to do,” says Giulia Cavaliere, an editor and writer who has lived in Pavia all her life. “It’s a wealthy city but the mentality here is rather closed. There’s just one movie theatre. The university is the only thing that is keeping the city alive, ensuring a constant flow of young people.”

SenzaSlot says these factors all came together to make Pavia particularly susceptible to gambling addiction. In the mid-2000s, after the national government removed restrictions, gaming machines began to spread through the city’s bars and cafes. Suddenly residents would stumble upon a gambling opportunity every time they bought a cappuccino.

“The city filled with slots and video poker machines,” recalls Ludovica Cassetta, another SenzaSlot activist. “It took a few years, but it was a constant process. We reached the point where bars looked like they were all about gambling, as if regular costumers didn’t matter any more.”

By 2013 Pavia had 647 slot machines and the highest per capita spending on gambling in Italy: €1,600 a year.

SenzaSlot’s first project was a website to map the few bars and cafes in the city that did not have slot machines. It now also provides gambling-free bars with a window sticker to highlight their lack of machines and runs events to inform residents, especially schoolchildren, about the dangers of gambling.

The group offers legal support to cafe owners who want to remove slot machines from their premises – which is not as straightforward as it might sound. Pubs and cafes don’t directly operate the machines, which are owned and managed by separate companies that give bar owners a share of revenues.

Installing a new slot machine is easy, but removing one can be hard: there is the loss of income (around €500 to €750 a month per machine) and the likelihood that the bar will have to pay a penalty (typically around €8,000 per machine) for breaking a contract.

“If you hold a pair of slot machines in your bar, they bring you €1,000 to €1,500 each month, which allows many to pay the rent,” says Riccardo Bernasconi, owner of Sottovento, a slot-free snack bar. He says many bar owners agree to host the machines because the companies that operate them throw in credit card payment systems free of charge. Bernasconi has vowed never to host gaming machines, because most of his customers are students who he feels are too young to understand the dangers.

By contrast, Matteo Tacchinardi, owner of the century-old Bar Italia, has hosted gaming machines for more than a decade. He considered getting rid of them but says he could not afford the penalty. “I would have to pay €8,000 for every machine, and it’s too much for me,” he says. Nevertheless, upset at the sight of his customers “throwing away their money”, he refuses to change bills into coins if he knows they will be used in the machines.

But the SenzaSlot movement has made inroads, and now has the local authorities on its side. The former mayor of Pavia, Massimo Depaoli, introduced restrictions limiting when the machines can operate to eight hours a day – from 10am to 1pm and 6pm to 11pm – in an effort to reduce use by vulnerable groups such as children and older people.

The city council has also introduced a rule forbidding the opening of any new slot machines within 500 metres of a school, church or retirement community. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t touch the existing slot machines because we have to wait until the end of the contract,” says Depaoli, who stepped down last month. “But Pavia is not a very large city, so it is hard to find places that don’t fall in the restricted areas.”

The municipality has barred slot machines from premises it owns, and offered slot-free bars and cafes longer opening hours on public holidays as an incentive to make the shift.

The policies appear to be having an effect. By the end of last year, the number of gambling machines in Pavia had fallen from 642 to 547, with the per capita spend down 25% to €1,200.

The SenzaSlot activists, meanwhile, welcome the latest moves but say the wider fight is not yet won. “True, our city is trying to limit slots,” says Cassetta, “but the fact is there are plenty of towns nearby that don’t have any anti-slot regulations. People can just go there to gamble.”

Potential pitfall in new betting age verification

Strict new regulations to ensure that bookmakers verify the age of their customers to prevent underage gambling are due to be introduced on 7 May, which most punters would probably agree is a good idea and quite possibly long overdue.

However, a William Hill customer who has had an account with the firm for nearly 20 years – and so is most definitely not underage – has been in touch to highlight a potential pitfall in the new rules, which could ensnare a substantial number of punters.

On Wednesday morning, he received an email from Hills to say that his account had been frozen until he can prove that he is at least 18 years old. He cannot withdraw the funds in the account, or close it before the new rules come into force next month, but he is also unable to comply with the new regulations because Hills will accept only a passport or a driver’s licence as proof of age, and he has neither.

A recent estimate is that 24% of UK residents – about 13 million – do not have a passport, while about 10 million do not have either a full or provisional driver’s licence. While it is hard to know how many fall into both categories, the crossover is likely to be significant.

The UK, of course, does not have a mandatory ID card and if William Hill’s insistence that only a passport or driver’s licence is acceptable as proof of age is mirrored across the gambling industry, which could well be the case, the punter is unlikely to be the only long-standing customer locked out of their account on 7 May.

“The new legislation does not take effect until 7 May,” he said via email, “and no prior warning was given by Hills that my account would be frozen until receiving an email after my account was suspended.”

He adds that phone calls and “live chat” with customer services on the Hills website proved “unproductive”, and that his understanding from the Gambling Commission is that a data set that includes date of birth, address and nearly 20 years of bank details should be sufficient to comply with the new rules.

Hills have been asked to comment and hopefully a response, and perhaps some form of resolution, will be provided in due course.

Growing match-fixing probe in tennis snares more players

French police have questioned another batch of tennis players in a growing investigation into a match-fixing syndicate suspected of paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix low-level matches, judicial officials said Thursday.

Seven French players were taken into custody this week and later released, taking the total number questioned in France so far to 17, the officials said. An initial batch of four players was first questioned in January . The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.

The probe is being led by authorities in Belgium, where the syndicate's suspected ringleader, an Armenian, is based. Belgian authorities say Grigor Sargsyan remains in custody in his home, monitored with an electronic bracelet.

Investigators say corrupted players bought off by the fixers knew Sargsyan as "Maestro". The massive scheme, organized via encrypted messaging and involving dozens of low-ranked players in small tournaments with little prize money, is believed to have spread tentacles to more than a half-dozen countries, including the United States. Belgian authorities say they've requested assistance from the FBI, as well as counterparts in Egypt, Slovakia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Germany.

This week's additional detentions were first reported Thursday by French sports daily L'Equipe. Officials didn't identify the players.

A Belgian investigator said five of the French players questioned so far have admitted to taking money from the syndicate to fix matches, and that one player believed to have fixed about two dozen matches confessed to police that he pocketed 30,000 euros ($ 34,000).

The probe has grown far bigger than Belgian authorities initially expected when they first swept up Sargsyan and others in a wave of arrests in June. He faces organized crime, match-fixing, money laundering and forgery charges.

The number of players suspected of involvement continues to grow. Belgian investigators, who have been pouring through phone records and other evidence, believe they have now identified 137 players suspected of fixing or attempted fixing. The syndicate allegedly paid 500 to 3,000 euros ($570 to $3,400) for fixed matches, sets or games. Police say the syndicate employed mules, people hired for a few dollars to place bets on fixed matches that were small enough to slip under the radar of gambling watchdogs.

The Belgian investigator said evidence collected so far suggests the syndicate knew other match-fixers in Spain but they weren't working together. Another investigator said several players who took money from the syndicate told the French police during questioning that they did so because prize monies at low-level tournaments are too small to pay their expenses.

Players told the police that they often saw the so-called Maestro at such tournaments, working to recruit other accomplices, and they described him as friendly and non-threatening, the investigator said.

So far, France has the biggest number of players questioned in the probe. The first four were named by investigators as Jules Okala, 21; Mick Lescure, 25; Yannick Thivant, 32; and Jerome Inzerillo, 29. None operated in the highest spheres of tennis. The career-best singles ranking of any of them was 354, reached by Inzerillo in 2012.

L'Equipe said it interviewed Inzerillo, accompanied by his lawyer, this week and that he told the newspaper that he had never been approached to fix a match.

Former Arsenal star Paul Merson: My life's fallen apart

Former Arsenal and Aston Villa star Paul Merson admits he's suffered a gambling addiction relapse.

In a new ITV documentary set to air next week on, the father-of-three reveals he has once again been gripped by gambling.

Speaking to producers of the show, Merson breaks down and says he is "struggling badly" with life.

He adds: "Life's fallen apart - gambling...I've just completely lost control, I've completely, again. I'm digging a hole - I can't get out of it.

"It's the worst addiction in the world."

He added: "It's so tiring it's unbelievable.

"Mentally draining, just sitting there, thinking where am I going to get more money to do this? It's like...it's literally like a crack addict. It is like a crack addict.

"Exactly like that.

"But, with crack, you couldn't spend that kind of money on crack, it's impossible. Impossible."

Is it true that Indian government is planning to legalise online gambling?

Rumours are abuzz about Indian government’s plans to regulate online gambling in the country. Overall, gambling is prohibited in India, apart from a few jurisdictions. However, there have been recent staccato calls for legalisation of online gambling. In fact, there exists a few companies who make use of the grey area in the legality of online gambling in the country and offer their services in a surrogate manner.

The recent rumours find their origin in a 150-page long report addressed to the government from the Law Commission of India (LCI). In this report, the LCI recommends the legalisation of online gambling in a regulated manner because it observes that the government cannot practically prevent people from accessing online betting sites. The current law has no provision for this.

The LCI also points to the immense potential for tax revenue that the federal government could benefit from, should it choose to regulate online gambling. In recent statements, the Indian government have said that they are looking into the reports from the LCI with maximum interest.

Despite all this, the rumours are unlikely to be true in the immediate future. The current central government is nearing the end of its five-year term. The general elections will be held in May later this year. The government, which is facing a tough battle for a second term, may not risk doing anything unconventional or what can be dubbed as politically incorrect at this juncture.