Paddy Power Betfair to pay £2m following social responsibility failings

Introduction 

On 17 December 2025, the Gambling Commission announced that four remote operators, trading under the names Paddy Power and Betfair, would pay a total of £2m as a result of failing to meet their social responsibility obligations in relation to customer interaction.

Background

In April and May 2024, the Commission undertook a Compliance Assessment of the remote operating licences granted to PPB Entertainment, PPB Counterparty Services Limited, Betfair Casino Limited and TSE Malta LP.

The review found that all four licensees had breached paragraphs 1, 4, 7, 8 and 11 of  Social Responsibility Code Provision  3.4.3 relating to remote customer interaction. These paragraphs require licensees to:

• implement effective customer interaction systems and processes to help minimise the risk of customers experiencing gambling harms;
• have in place effective systems to monitor customer activity, which flag indicators of harm in a timely manner;
• take appropriate action (both automated and manual) when risk of harm is identified; and
• ensure any automated action is manually reviewed and that the customer is given the opportunity to contest such action.

Details of breaches

The review found that the licensees had not effectively implemented their policies, procedures and controls in relation to customer interaction. In particular, velocity of spend, increasing deposits, overnight gambling and changing betting habits were either not flagged at all or were not dealt with until the next day. Specifically:

• customers deposited £12,000 in 15 days, deposited £25,000 in 25 days, lost £12,300 in 5 weeks, staked £86,000 in 16 days and lost £6,000 in 16 days; and
• one customer placed over 300 bets amounting to £20,000 during a gambling session lasting over 7 hours.

The Commission considered that the licensees had not implemented appropriate automated actions i.e. to block extended overnight play automatically until a manual interaction could take place.

Settlement

The Commission was of the view that these breaches were particularly serious given it had made numerous previous public statements regarding similar failings with other operators. Nevertheless, the Commission accepted that the four Paddy Power Betfair licensees had swiftly put in place a plan aimed at dealing with the failings, had cooperated fully and had accepted their failings at an early stage in the investigation.

In addition to the payment of £2m, the licensees agreed to have the facts of the case published, and also made a payment towards the Commission’s investigation costs.

Action for all operators

The Commission has urged other operators to consider their existing processes and, in particular, ask themselves whether their safer gambling controls are capable of identifying all required indicators of harm, whether they use automated and whether indicators of harm are flagged in a timely manner.