Great Britain’s Gambling Commission has ordered Done Brothers, trading as Betfred, to pay £825,000 ($1.1 million) over a series of failures relating to social responsibility and anti-money laundering.
The operator was ruled to have breached several of its licence conditions in Britain. As such, it will make the payment and must also undergo a third-party audit to ensure it is effectively implementing AML and safer gambling measures.
Setting out its findings, the commission said failings were identified at Betfred betting shops between May 2024 and March 2025. Betfred currently operates approximately 1,350 shops across the UK.
In terms of AML failures, the regulator flagged how Betfred was unable to effectively identify and manage money laundering risks associated with customers using B3 gaming machines. The commission said while machine alerts and daily reports were used, practices in place at the time meant Betfred was unable to assess overall customer spend. As such, it was also not able to analyse the associated money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
Betfred was also flagged for not having an effective policy to identify players who might be subject to financial sanctions.
In addition, the commission said thresholds at which it made enquiries over users’ income sources were “not appropriately risk based”. Thresholds at the time were set at £15,000 losses and £125,000 stakes in 365 days.
Betfred criticised over player interactions
Looking at social responsibility failures, the commission flagged several concerns with the operator. Among these was not adequately identifying spend and associated financial indicators of gambling harm for customers using B3 gaming machines.
Betfred was also rapped over its interactions with customers, with this not always taking place after identifying risk indicators. The regulator also said that when interactions did occur, they were not conducted in a way “which minimised the risk of gambling related harm”.
On the same subject, the commission said that the quality of interactions, in particular understanding the impact of these, did not meet the required standards.
As for specific breaches, the regulator highlighted several conditions that were broken. These included paragraph 2 of licence condition 12.1.1, covering AML and preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. Betfred was also found in breach of paragraph 1 of Social Responsibility Code Provision 3.4.1, relating to customer interaction.
Betfred faces regulatory action for second time in two years
Ruling on the case, the commission acknowledged that this was the second time Betfred and Done Brothers had faced regulatory action in just over two years.
In July 2023, Betfred had to pay £3.25 million, again relating to AML and social responsibility failures. The regulatory settlement was made in lieu of a financial penalty.
However, the commission also noted that Betfred had taken action to address some of the concerns noted in the latest ruling. These, it added, will be subject to more scrutiny during the third-party audit.
“While the failings identified during the 2024 Compliance Assessment were predominantly technical breaches rather than arising from specific customer examples, they were nevertheless unacceptable, particularly with thresholds appearing too high and insufficiently risk based when assessed in practice, and deficiencies in some processes and procedures adopted by the licensee,” said John Pierce, director of enforcement at the commission.
“We fully acknowledge the improvements the operator has already made since these issues were identified. The independent audit will be key to confirming these changes are sustained so that the operator continues to be fully compliant with social responsibility and anti-money laundering requirements.”
Another sanction from Britain’s regulator
Betfred becomes the latest operator to feel the wrath of Britain’s regulator. Recently, the commission suspended Deadheat Racing’s licences while it carried out a review of the operator over social responsibility and AML failures.
Meanwhile, Videoslots was fined £650,000 for breaching AML and social responsibility rules. NetBet was also recently ordered to pay £650,000, again over AML and social responsibility failings.
In addition, the commission suspended Spribe OÜ’s software licence in October for failing to comply with hosting requirements.
Failings were identified at Betfred betting shops between May 2024 and March 2025.