The French official gambling regulator, L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), has imposed a record-breaking €800,000 ($843,360) fine to SPS Betting, the operator of Unibet in France.
The penalty, which is also the highest ever issued by the ANJ, is due to a critical failure in the company’s self-exclusion system and further highlights the firm stance of the regulator when it comes to responsible gambling compliance.
Moreover, the ANJ revealed that a prolonged system malfunction of the self-exclusion system allowed self-excluded players to continue placing bets on Unibet’s platform.
What is particularly interesting is that the issue specifically affected iOS users and lasted from March 2021 to December 2022.
While Unibet initially resolved the problem, additional glitches in the program occurred, which required further maintenance over the following three months.
Although the exact number of affected players was not disclosed, the ANJ estimates that up to 6,754 Unibet accounts were impacted.
On the other hand, SPS Betting, the operator of Unibet, said that the number is lower, suggesting that more than 4,500 accounts were impacted and that not all users necessarily placed bets.
The ANJ was unable to determine the exact number of players who self-excluded and engaged in gambling activity due to the malfunction, though the regulator places this number around 100.
At the moment of writing, SPS Betting still haven’t contested the ANJ’s investigation, which the French authority classified as a severe violation of regulatory standards.
Given the seriousness of the issue, the extended duration of the problem, and the inability of Unibet to make initial remediation efforts, the French regulator decided to impose its largest fine in France to date.
The magnitude of the fine was also influenced by previous regulatory breaches in France, where the operator had already received two fines, with the most recent being for violating the country’s mandatory 85% return-to-player (RTP) limit.
Unibet was given two months to appeal the decision by the ANJ. In addition, the company must display a notice regarding the fine prominently on its website homepage in order to ensure transparency with its users.
