- Joined
- May 22, 2012
If you haven't seen this, it shows the state of UK gambling scene in clarity. Shocker!
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I think there's two angles to this - they obviously want his details for blacklist purposes - whether finding his online accounts (if any) or trying to link him to other members of the syndicate (if any).They were more concerned with harvesting his details - the reasons are obvious. He was a substantial winner so wanted to share them presumably with some kind of bookies watch list and to check he didn't have an online account which they could then 'manage' by closing or imposing £1 bet limits etc.
That's the whole point - they took £5500 without ID! So they were stuck between devil and deep blue sea as they say. The guy sounded English, as if he was born or raised in the UK. I must admit, that's the only doubt I had - 3 similar bets on obscure tennis games etc. could also indicate some kind of match fixing.To try and piece together some of the more subtle information here:
All the legs won, so the total of roughly £2400 wagered yielded a little under £12500.
- The first bet (denoted by the CCTV, timed 1230hrs) would be the "two tennis matches and a football match" quoted in the commentary - ballpark £750 staked for
£6000£5500 win.- The second and third (denoted by the betting slips, timed 2049hrs and 2054hrs same day) relate only to the two tennis matches (Safiullin-Jarry, Berrettini-FAA) - £640 staked for £2443, then £1000 for £4009 five minutes later.
So there's obviously a Customer Due Diligence (CDD) problem here - the customer has placed 3 £500+ bets in the space of 9 hours, of which two are minutes apart. If the second didn't trigger alarm bells, the third absolutely should have - it's the kind of thing they've been clobbered for before (as discussed in the video analysis).
While the video doesn't question the motives of the customer, there's quite a few potential red flags here - visiting the UK (non-resident, no UK bank account), has thousands of pounds in cash to hand, and is wagering substantial amounts on sports.
I expect syndicate play and money laundering would look very similar to this behaviour - so even if the customer is completely innocent, it's enough of a concern that you'd expect it to be checked.
I think there's two angles to this - they obviously want his details for blacklist purposes - whether finding his online accounts (if any) or trying to link him to other members of the syndicate (if any).
But given the blatant CDD failures, they're trying to cover that up also - remember that they've taken the bets and paid out £5500 without identification. So if he's betting on someone else's behalf they have no comeback, and if it was money laundering then WH have got a real headache on their hands.
If they were purely asking for identification then I wouldn't consider that unreasonable (but similarly should have been asked at the time of bet placement) - but I strongly suspect that would have been the first step and they would have demanded bank statements and other sensitive personal data... anything to weasel out of paying the remainder.
The staff calling the police multiple times was disgusting though - blatant intimidation tactics to rectify their own mistake.
They took £2400 and paid out £5500. It's possible there are multiple CDD failures here - not only for placing the bets initially, but for paying out the first ticket as well. Anyone who has watched the Steven Bridges card counting series will know how manipulative venues can be at refusing to pay out despite being under a CDD or reporting limit - because they obviously want his details to circulate on an internal blacklist.That's the whole point - they took £5500 without ID! So they were stuck between devil and deep blue sea as they say. The guy sounded English, as if he was born or raised in the UK. I must admit, that's the only doubt I had - 3 similar bets on obscure tennis games etc. could also indicate some kind of match fixing.