GVC Holdings fined £350,000 by commission for misleading adverts

GVC Holdings, set to take over Ladbrokes Coral in a deal worth up to £4 billion, were on Wednesday fined £350,000 by the Gambling Commission for repeatedly misleading gamblers with adverts relating to free bonuses.

The fine was imposed on GVC's bwin operating subsidiary ElectraWorks following breaches of the Gambling Commission's codes relating to advertising practice and free bet and bonus offers.

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint against ElectraWorks in mid August 2016 regarding a free bonus promotion on bwin's website, with another breach of a similar nature discovered a week later.

Further breaches were made in April, June and August last year on a variety of other casino and poker websites, all owned by GVC Holdings.

ElectraWorks has also received a formal warning from the Gambling Commission for failing to ensure that the person responsible for marketing at the business holds a personal management licence.

Richard Watson, programme director at the Gambling Commission, said: "This fine should serve a warning to all gambling businesses that we will not hesitate to take action against those who mislead consumers with bonus offers or fail to ensure they are correctly licensed."

The Gambling Commission imposed a first financial penalty for advertising failings when BGO Entertainment were fined £300,000 in May.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) at the start of this month insisted that all firms should adopt a similar stance taken by Ladbrokes, William Hill and PT Entertainment, who formally committed to change how they offer bonus promotions and ensure punters can always access and release their money.

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