Gambling operator Paddy Power has voluntarily agreed to implement improvements in its anti-money laundering processes and social responsibility practices, and to pay the amount of £280,000 to a socially responsible cause after it had failed to prevent criminal activities from occurring at its shops and protect vulnerable gambling customers.
The announcement came after the UK Gambling Commission had investigated thoroughly Paddy Power’s policy against anti-money laundering and its social responsibility practices, and had found certain serious failings in those. The investigation was concerned with three particular cases in the period between 2014-2015, in which the gambling operator apparently demonstrated poor anti-money laundering monitoring and failings in the way it handled customers with problem gambling behavior.
In the first case, which occurred in 2014, Paddy Power paid due attention to a customer of one of its shops, who has shown symptoms of gambling addiction, only after it was found out that the person had lost his home and access to family.
In the second case, a gambling customer at another Power Paddy betting shop used gambling machines to launder Scottish banknotes. She placed the banknotes into the devices but then requested to be paid out on a debit card. Staff members reported the customer to their seniors but none of them notified the company’s Money Laundering Reporting Officer until it became clear that she was investigated by the Scottish police.
The third instance involved Mark Cooney, who was found guilty in a fraud case in 2015. It seems that Mr. Cooney stole more than £250,000 from a total of six customers at two of the banks he had worked and had spent a large portion of the money gambling online at Paddy Power. The gambling operator confirmed that Mr. Cooney opened an account with it in April 2014 and the level of his spending indicated a need of “enhanced due diligence’, which was, however, undertaken five months later.
Following the UK Gambling Commission’s findings, Paddy Power has agreed to a third party to conduct a review of its anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls. In addition, the gambling operator has promised to pay the amount of £280,000 to an agreed socially responsible cause. The money represents the profits the company had made from the above-mentioned three customers.
Paddy Power has also agreed to the publication of a statement by the UK Gambling Commission so as learning to be shared with both the industry and the general public. The gambling company will pay the amount of £27,250 to cover the regulator’s costs related to the investigation of the matter.
