Sky Vegas hit with £1.7m fine from Gambling Commission
The Gambling Commission (GC) has issued a fine of £1.17m ($1.54m) to Bonne Terre, which trades as Sky Betting & Gaming.
It has been dealt this penalty for sending promotional emails to Sky Vegas customers who had self-excluded or opted out of receiving marketing.
The GC notes Bonne Terre breached the conditions of its licence when 41,395 Sky Vegas promotional offers were sent to self-excluded customers and 249,259 people that were unsubscribed from the online casino.
The promotional offer in question, “Bet £5 get 100 free spins”, is something GC Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes has deemed a “costly error.”
He said: “Self-excluded customers are likely to be suffering gambling harm and should not be sent direct marketing that could tempt them back into gambling.
“We would advise all operators to learn from Sky Betting and Gaming’s costly errors and ensure their systems are robust enough to always prevent the self-excluded, and those who have rejected marketing, from receiving promotional material.
“This latest fine would have been a lot higher had Sky Betting and Gaming allowed any of the self-excluded customers to gamble, failed to cooperate, and not taken decisive action aimed at preventing a repeat.”
This latest fine from the GC comes after a string of recent regulatory action, most notably against online sports betting operators 888 Holdings and BetVictor, who receives joint financial penalties totalling £11.4m.
Sky Betting & Gaming is owned by Flutter Entertainment, which reported group revenue of £6.04bn ($8.11bn) in its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2021.
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