32Red Reimburses Employer £590K for Stolen Gambled Money

Kindred’s UK-facing 32Red has reimbursed a Northern Ireland company after an employee stole £590K and spent it on the casino website over the course of a year.

32Red Reimburses Employer for Stolen Cash

British casino operator 32Red has reimbursed an Irish problem gambler’s employer £590,000 (US$760,000), after the website had failed to verify the source of the money and notice the disparity between the player’s personal finances and sudden increase in betting activity.

On Tuesday, November 19, Londonberry Crown Court received confirmation that the Kindred brand had restored the amount to defendant Tracey Curran’s employer S3 Alliance, an industrial equipment supplier company. The employee had used various debit and credit cards to embezzle the sum and then spend it on the UK casino website.

Mr. Curran pleaded guilty in October, accepting six counts of fraud by false representation. The embezzlement scheme lasted a year and ran between January 2016 and April 2017. A Public Prosecution Service informed the court that the funds had been reimbursed.

The latest case surrounding the 32Red brand seeks out a positive development, after the brand suffered multiple frictions with regulators over the past few years.

32Red Recovers from Hefty Penalties

In the past year, 32Red has made headlines on several occasions, specifically in a regulatory context. The operator was slapped with a hefty penalty in June, 2018 for failing to commit to proper anti-money laundering measures as well as achieve the necessary standard of social responsibility.

The fine amounted to £2 million (US$2.6 million), the largest in the history of the company. On the particular occasion leading up to the fine, 32Red had accepted £709,000 (US$914,000) from a VIP customer over a period of three years.

Other than that, the Advertisement Standards Authority (ASA) cautioned the operator over an advertisement featuring Jack and the Beanstalk, deeming it inappropriate as it may reach children. ASA censored the ad.

The regulator’s official stance read:

“We therefore considered that, by targeting ads to search engine users who used that term, 32Red had not specifically and carefully targeted the ad only at those aged 18 or over, and had therefore directed gambling ads to those aged under 18 years of age.”

In August, the company was also criticized over a sponsorship deal with Derby County, an English Championship soccer team. As per the deal’s terms, soccer players from Derby County had #32 on their jerseys, which people found to be a stark reference to gambling.

This is especially true now that sportsbooks in the United Kingdom have negotiated a voluntary pre-watershed ban to help keep betting exposure among underage individuals young adults at a minimum.

British Firms to Bolster Protection Efforts

Earlier in November, a number of British gambling companies pledged to introduce enhanced safety measures, including better measures to counteract underage gambling, more support for gambling harm treatment, and better code of conduct in marketing campaigns.

Furthermore, the companies considered adding better overall customer environment and a culture of safer gambling. Bet365, William Hill and the Ladbrokes and GVC have all decided to support the measures.