Paddy Power Betfair fined £2m for failings
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23 Dec 2025 •
Reading time: 3 minutes Paddy Power Betfair has agreed to pay £2 million after a compliance audit highlighted serious failings in player protection. The penalty comes after a thorough review of the company’s social responsibility practices.
When monitoring did not work
The case began with a regulatory assessment carried out in 2024, during which the Gambling Commission examined the licences of four entities operating under the Paddy Power and Betfair brands. This was not an abstract accusation, but a concrete audit of the systems for monitoring customer accounts and humanised interactions with players.
The investigation quickly brought to light troubling examples of behaviour of concern that had not been identified or dealt with adequately. These included:
- A punter deposited £12,000 in 15 days before an initial review of his account was triggered.
- Another deposited £25,000 in 25 days without any meaningful interaction to assess his level of risk.
- A third person lost £12,300 over five weeks before being considered by the operator’s systems.
- One particularly alarming case involved a player who had bet £86,000 in the space of 16 days, for total losses of £6,000, without any manual review having taken place beforehand.
- Another customer had been active almost non-stop, with one session lasting almost eight hours and over 300 bets totalling £20,000, before this behaviour was identified as potentially damaging.
This evidence points to flaws in the way in which automated systems, though widely used in the industry, were devoid of sufficient human vigilance. The lack of rapid intervention, despite obvious risk signals, led the Commission to conclude that the controls in place were insufficient.
A heavy penalty for failing to protect players
The total sum of £2 million is not a punitive fine in the traditional sense of the term, but rather a payment in lieu of an official financial sanction, approved by the Commission. This distinction is important: the stated aim of the regulator is not just to punish, but also to encourage learning and sustainable compliance across the industry.
John Pierce, Director of Enforcement at the Gambling Commission, summed up the regulator’s thinking at the announcement:
“This £2 million settlement reflects the seriousness of the breaches found and the importance of meeting standards of social responsibility and customer interaction. While the licensees co-operated fully with the investigation, promptly acknowledged the breaches and implemented an action plan, this immediate response is the minimum we expect from operators when serious breaches are identified. Operators must ensure that the systems for identifying and dealing with damage are operating effectively and at the right time. Over-reliance on automation and failure to act when there are clear indicators of harm exposes consumers to unnecessary risks.”
The UK Gambling Commission, which strictly supervises licensed operators, has also stressed a key point: automated systems must not replace human vigilance when it comes to detecting indicators of harm in players.
In an industry where transactions can be rapid and risky behaviour difficult to spot, technological mechanisms are essential. But the Commission has made it clear that these tools alone are not enough. Manual intervention and human assessment remain crucial to ensure that gamblers do not fall into a dangerous gambling cycle without proper assistance or reporting.
Towards improved practices or increased pressure?
From the operator’s point of view, public responses tend to play down the real risks incurred by customers. Paddy Power Betfair said that it had adopted an immediate action plan and that the cases identified in the review did not reflect any actual harm caused to customers. The company also claims to have improved its systems, including introducing a next-generation customer security platform with real-time controls which it says significantly reduces the likelihood of such breaches occurring again.
The penalty imposed on Paddy Power Betfair is more than just a figure: it symbolises a growing intolerance on the part of regulators for shortcomings in social responsibility and customer monitoring. While automated tools are key elements of risk management, they cannot replace proactive human attention when risky behaviour emerges.