PointsBet slapped with C$150k Ontario penalty over RG breaches
Fanatics subsidiary found to have failed to appropriately intervene after player lost $500,000 in under three months
PointsBet has been issued with a monetary penalty of C$150,000 by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) after an investigation found the firm had failed to meet responsible gambling (RG) requirements.
Breaches were identified in several areas, most notably where PointsBet was found to have failed to appropriately intervene where a player lost $500,000 in under three months.
The player was flagged as potentially high-risk by the operator’s monitoring systems on multiple occasions, including due to incurring significant losses and making repeated withdrawal cancellations.
Despite this, no interventions were made by PointsBet during that period.
PointsBet was also found to have failed to enforce a required 24-hour cooling off period when that individual canceled a per-day deposit limit applied on the account.
Separately, PointsBet communicated gambling inducements in the form of credits to a player’s account without that player’s consent and in contravention of the player’s withdrawal of consent for direct advertising and marketing.
Credits totaling C$35,000 were deposited on a number of occasions in the player’s account, as well as numerous offers of free tickets to sporting events.
AGCO has deemed these incidents to be a structural failure of the operator’s obligations to ensure employees understand the importance of responsible gambling and a perceived inadequacy in training of staff in this area.
“In Ontario, igaming operators have an obligation to proactively monitor their patrons’ play for signs of high-risk gambling, and to take appropriate actions to intervene and reduce the potential for gambling-related harms,” AGCO CEO and registrar Dr. Karin Schnarr said in a statement.
“The AGCO will continue to focus on player protection by holding all registered operators to these high standards,” the Ontario regulatory lead added.
Any operator served with a notice of monetary penalty by the AGCO can appeal to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT), an adjudicative tribunal independent of the AGCO and part of Tribunals Ontario.
PointsBet has found itself in the AGCO’s crosshairs once before in respect of gambling inducements, with the firm being issued a penalty of C$30,000 in May 2022, just one month after the regulated market went live in Ontario.