32Red Faces Large Fine for Promoting Problem-Gambling Behaviour

One of the best PayPal casinos, 32Red, is facing serious charges. Recently, the UKGC has discovered that 32Red has been pushing a person with problem-gambling behaviour to gamble more, instead of preventing them.

Because of this, 32Red is facing a fine of $2.6 million. They allowed the said person to deposit almost a million over the course of three years. The worst part? This person is a member of their VIP club and they are a known problem gambler, which is why the UKGC reacted. The $2.6 million fine will cover divestment of financial gain and investigation costs. However, the largest chunk is going to the National Responsible Gambling strategy.

Additionally, the UKGC managed to find 22 instances of 32Red breaking their social duty. It is unknown whether they knew if their top VIP was a problem gambler, but they kept feeding his passion by granting him ever-increasing bonuses. Richard Watson, the UKGC Executive Director, said, “instead of checking the welfare of a customer… 32Red encouraged the customer to gamble more.” He then added, “this is the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to be doing.”

However, that’s not the only thing wrong with 32Red. The UKGC tagged the reputable casino with a much more serious accusation. The UKGC found out that they did not check the problem gambler’s source of income as well. This means that 32Red has a weak money laundering prevention programme. Considering their player deposited over $300.000, this should have definitely raised a red flag with the casino. However, 32Red completely ignored the issue, which led to the UKGC coming down hard on them.

In the end, 32Red did accept the blame for their actions. They apologised for their conduct, and have even implemented a number of improvements in their programme. Hopefully, they’ll stay on the right path from now on.