Gambling regulator in France fines operator over self-exclusion issue

The company SPS Betting has been fined a record €800,000 by France’s gambling regulator Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) over a reported self-exclusion issue.

In a press release, the ANJ has detailed the examination as they state the operator “had allegedly failed to comply with its obligations relating to the self-exclusion system offered to players on the Unibet website and application.”

SPS Betting is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Malta-based Kindred Group which operates Unibet.fr.

The company has now been fined the substantial figure, with the ANJ stating it can be justified by “the large number of players who were unable to benefit from this protection system.”

A self-exclusion scheme is where a member of the public enters into a formal agreement not to gamble. Typically, if a player does try and gamble during the timeframe then the operator is usually expected to take reasonable steps to stop them.

In France, the gambling act sets out that players must be able to request a self-exclusion period of varying lengths ranging from 24 hours to 12 months.

The computer ‘malfunction,’ as it’s being described by the watchdog, was said to have been observed from March 2, 2021, to December 11, 2022, before it was then corrected. However, it was then reported to have come up again due to an update.

“According to estimates by the ANJ and the operator, several thousand players who had requested self-exclusion, for periods ranging from several weeks to several months, were likely to have been able to play again within a few days.

“Self-exclusion requests made by players in months were automatically converted into days. A player requesting a twelve-month self-exclusion was therefore self-excluded for just twelve days.”

The fine is an unprecedented one in its scope, but the watchdog highlights how this “is a reminder of how important it is for the commission to penalize operators’ failure to meet their obligations to prevent excessive gambling.”

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