UK Gambling Regulator Fines Petfre £240,000 Over Misleading Slots

The UK Gambling Commission (GC) has imposed a £240,000 ($323,000) fine on Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited for breaches of industry standards related to some of its slots offerings. Petfre, which operates the Betfred and Oddsking brands, was sanctioned after failing to meet the licensing requirements under the 2005 Gambling Act that cover remote gambling and software technical standards.

An investigation by the GC found that certain slot games could be misleading and confusing to players, impairing their ability to understand the progress of their session. Specific failings included graphics that appeared to celebrate losses as wins and games that failed to display a player’s net position.

John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement at the GC, stated: “Features that impair a consumer’s ability to make informed decisions are not appropriate and pose a clear risk.” While the GC acknowledged that Petfre immediately responded by removing the offending games, the regulator emphasised that compliance after the fact was insufficient to prevent a financial penalty.

Pierce added: “This enforcement action should serve as a clear signal to the wider industry to review and strengthen their compliance practices – and to ensure that gameplay is fair and consumers are not exposed to unnecessary risk.”

The latest fine is one of a few occasions on which Petfre or Betfred has been penalised for violations of GC rules, though it is significantly smaller than previous sanctions. In 2022, following findings of social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures, Petfre was ordered to pay £2.87 million. Some of those failures involved inadequate controls to prevent rapid and high-volume losses by new customers, with one individual permitted to lose £70,000 within the first ten hours of signing up.

By fLEXI tEAM