Sky Vegas fined £1.2m for sending free casino ‘spins’ to recovering addicts

theguardian.com:

Sky Vegas has been fined £1.2m for sending free casino “spins” to recovering addicts during the industry’s annual Safer Gambling Week.

The fine comes at a sensitive time for the British gambling industry, which has been at pains to show it has improved its attitude to social responsibility.

The government is in the midst of a landmark review of how the sector is regulated, with proposals due to be published in a white paper expected within weeks. Yet major brands have been hit with a series of penalties for failing to protect vulnerable people in recent weeks.

888 Casino, which is in the process of buying William Hill’s UK assets, was fined £9.4m last week over multiple failings that led to customers racking up huge losses during the depths of the Covid pandemic. BetVictor was fined £2m in February for failures in fairness, money-laundering controls and social responsibility.

The new fine for Sky Vegas, owned by the global gambling firm Flutter, comes after it sent a promotional offer of “Bet £5 get 100 free spins” to 41,395 customers who had voluntarily self-excluded from gambling in an effort to stop.

A further 249,159 customers who had unsubscribed from the operator’s marketing emails also received the promotion.

“Here at Sky Vegas, we love the unexpected,” one marketing email read. “That’s right. Simply opt in, spend £5 and claim your 100 free spins. The best part? Whatever you win is yours to keep – that’s the fun in fair!”

The promotional message featured graphics of slot machines and the slogan: “Entertainment like no other.”

The incident, revealed by the Guardian in November last year, led addicts to warn that receiving such messages could have triggered a relapse.

Andrew Rhodes, the Gambling Commission’s chief executive,