The UK Gambling Commission may launch a probe into the way gambling operator Ladbrokes protects and disposes of its customers’ personal information. The move may be found necessary after a recent incident in which papers containing sensitive details about customers of the company were found on the street near a Ladbrokes-branded betting shop in Glasgow.
The UKGC is the main gambling regulatory body of the United Kingdom and it is part of its responsibilities to ensure that its licensees act in full compliance with data protection laws.
News spread recently that a person who happened to pass by a Glasgow-based Ladbrokes betting shop came across sensitive documents thrown in a bag bin on the street. The papers contained names, photographs, and addresses of customers that had opted for the Moses self-exclusion system. Ladbrokes along with several other major gambling operators participates in said system.
Launched by the Senet Group, Moses provides customers with problem gambling behavior with the opportunity to self-exclude themselves from gambling for one year. They are not allowed into gambling premises over the course of the self-exclusion period.
Betting shop staff needs comprehensive information about self-excluded customers in order to be able to keep them away from gambling. However, bookmakers are obliged to protect the sensitive information and to destroy it in a proper manner when they do not need it any longer.
The UKGC revealed that it is currently reviewing Ladbrokes’ practices for disposing of such information and whether sensitive data about its customers is protected the way it should be.
Ladbrokes commented on the incident by saying that they were taking it seriously and that they had already initiated a full internal investigation that would include its retail operations all over the United Kingdom. However, the gambling operator did not provide information on why the documents had been found in a bin bag in the middle of a Glasgow street.
News about UKGC probing Ladbrokes came days after the Football Association announced that it would end its sponsorship deal with the operator. The two parties signed a four-year contract last year, but FA officials decided to end it after facing criticism about promoting gambling operators and sanctioning footballers for gambling at the same time.
The partnership was terminated as from June. The FA’s decision affected other major UK bookmakers sponsoring football clubs, as they will no longer be able to do so. However, the organization pointed out that it will continue working with gambling operators as they are important participants in the FA’s efforts to keep football’s integrity by providing information about suspicious betting patterns.
