LeoVegas Fined £600,000 by UK Gambling Commision

[Nyxxernar]

See below from the UK Gambling Commission.. very poor practice, nothing short of theft.

LeoVegas, the online gambling operator, has been penalised by the Gambling Commission for failings relating to misleading advertising and the handling of customers at the end of their self-exclusion period.

Following a review of LeoVegas’ licence the Commission has concluded matters on the basis that LeoVegas will pay a £600,000 penalty, will divest itself of any funds received as a result of the failings, and will pay the Commission’s costs.

During its investigation the Commission found that LeoVegas:

• Was responsible for 41 misleading adverts
  
• Failed to return funds to 11,205 customers when they chose to self-exclude and close their account
  
• Sent marketing material to 1,894 people who had previously self-excluded
  
• Allowed 413 previously self-excluded [1] customers to gamble without speaking to those customers first or applying a 24-hour cooling off period before allowing them to gamble.
  

Neil McArthur, the Gambling Commission’s Chief Executive said: “The outcome of this case should leave no one in any doubt that we will be tough with licence holders who mislead consumers or fail to meet the standards we set in our licence conditions and codes of practice. We want operators to learn the lessons from our investigations and use those lessons to raise standards.

 

[pineapple]

There wont be much said on this forum about it 

 

[Andreas]

Well, imo I think one can only applaud UKGC for going hard after this and, as they say themselves, have operators raise their standards and also be penalised for mistakes. I learned on the Q1 presentation today that Leo, besides the fine, has closed down the affiliates related to the misleading adverts as well as taken several actions to ensure the mistakes related to SE'd players can't happen again (this particular thing was in 2016 I believe). 

 

[Boulder]

Thinks like this, what me too stop playing there...

 

[Nosound113]

 

 

[Nicola]

Won't be long before the first affilate(s) get fined as well.

Good to see the UKGC and ASA working hard to enforce regulations. LeoVegas have long had lapses in responsible gambling and have failed to act on a number of issues.

 

[sunzzx]

seems like that dogshit casino is just full off bad news. lets addicts lose millions of euros, now gets fined for small stake players still beeing able to play while selfexcludeed.

seems like they thrive to make money on them addicts lol

might aswell delete this whole forum if news like this keep popping up???

50 mill sek invested in bad Pr, good idea,

i rly doubt the ppl linking vids/pcis off their wins brins any traffic

 

[slotsofun]

Funnily enough, after my self exclusion from Leo just over a week ago, I have still been receiving marketing material from their sister sites 21, Royal Panda and pink casino.

So, lessons still need learned.

 

[ShawSlots]

Funnily enough, after my self exclusion from Leo just over a week ago, I have still been receiving marketing material from their sister sites 21, Royal Panda and pink casino.

So, lessons still need learned.

21? don't think that has anything to do with leo? 

 

[Slotplayer]

Funnily enough, after my self exclusion from Leo just over a week ago, I have still been receiving marketing material from their sister sites 21, Royal Panda and pink casino.

So, lessons still need learned.

Do they share the same UK License? If not, then it is quite possible. If they do share the same license, then it shouldn't have happened.

You are aware of Gamstop? It self excludes from all UK licensed casinos. Self exclusion should only be used if you have gambling problems and want to stop. Use the "take a break" option if you want a short break from gambling but not because of problem gambling.

Bad form by Leovegas and a well deserved fine by the UKGC.

 

[Slotplayer]

Thinks like this, what me too stop playing there...

Plenty of other casinos out there. All with their own advantages and disadvantages.

 

[Slotplayer]

As I said up topic, not very good by Leovegas at all and a well deserved telling off by the UKGC. I noticed from Andreas post that measures have been put in place now to prevent it happening again, which is good news.

Regulators (in all industries, such as energy, telecommunications, advertising) slap fines on Companies quite frequently.

Over on another casino forum, you hear about UKGC intervention quite often across a plethora of casinos. On this forum, you only hear about it when it is Leovegas. Makes you wonder why 9_9

 

[NudgeShuffle]

Well, imo I think one can only applaud UKGC for going hard after this and, as they say themselves, have operators raise their standards and also be penalised for mistakes. I learned on the Q1 presentation today that Leo, besides the fine, has closed down the affiliates related to the misleading adverts as well as taken several actions to ensure the mistakes related to SE'd players can't happen again (this particular thing was in 2016 I believe). 

In many of the cases LeoVegas were directly responsible for hosting the misleading content themselves so this wasn't solely an issue with affiliates.

The responsible gambling failures are the significant issue related to this fine.

I am not personally convinced that £600K is a significant penalty for a company the size of LeoVegas.  The suggestion that processes have been put in place to stop this happening again does not address the company culture which gives rise to these problems. This case and the other big case involving the stolen millions suggests the issue goes deeper than simply a process failure.