The British and Irish gambling giant Flutter Entertainment has faced accusations of providing special cash bonuses and free hospitality tickets to a fraudster who has bet massive sums of money with it.
The gambling operator is to defend itself in the High Court following claims it allowed gambler Tony Parente to place defrauded funds amounting to £282,000 as bets. As reported by This is Money, the court heard that Flutter Entertainment’s sportsbook brand Paddy Power accepted a total of £127,000 in banknotes in a period of eight weeks without bookmaker’s staff members raising the alarm.
Even after Paddy Power’s staff earmarked his betting as “wild”, Mr Parente was still able to continue betting and go to events. The gambler confessed to defrauding over 20 people, including his sister, in order to get money and continue gambling. For this, in 2017 he faced a suspended jail sentence.
However, the gambling operator was criticised for allowing Parente to gamble under these circumstances, especially considering the fact that under the existing law British bookmakers are required to make sure they keep crime out of gambling.
As a result of the case, the boss of Flutter Entertainments’ international division, Dan Taylor, was forced to admit in court that he was very much embarrassed by what happened.
Paddy Power Criticised for Offering Special Incentives to the Gambling Addict
At the High Court hearing, it became clear that the British gambling operator generously provided Mr Parente, who was a problem gambler, with free tickets to Arsenal games worth £3,000. Apart from that, the company also offered him hospitality days at the Cheltenham and Grand National horse races.
As mentioned above, This is Money also reported that the gambler was allowed to place bets even though senior staff members of Paddy Power knew he was based in Dubai, where gambling is currently illegal.
Now, Flutter Entertainment is facing legal action by an ex-business associate of Mr Parente who claims the gambler owes him £282,000. The man, Amarjeet Singh Dhir, claims that the gambler stole money from him to feed his gambling addiction and the British gambling operator should have prevented him from continuing to gamble. These allegations have been rejected by Paddy Power’s owner that is now defending the claim.
During the court hearing, it became clear that the 41-year-old man suffered from severe problem gambling. He even lost £3.4 million with William Hill, bet365, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes in a 3-year period.
Parente became a customer of Paddy Power in 2015 after he was reckoned by Tony Carroll, a professional introducer. The player was known as a big spender, so he was offered a massive £20,000 sign-in bonus to encourage him to switch from Paddy Power’s rival Ladbrokes. According to legal claims, however, he showed some signs of problem gambling behaviour at the time but the company did nothing to stop it. To make things worse, even though the gambling operator’s staff saw him spending massive amounts of money, the player was offered special incentives like tickets to sports events.
Several months later, the player admitted that he had gambled cash that investors had given to him and that he had been seriously addicted to gambling.
- Author
Olivia Cole
