The Gambling Times lodged a Freedom of Information Act request with the Gambling Commission regarding BetButler. In news that won't be suprising to anyone who's had dealings with the Gambling Commission, they've declined the request for information. The reason is a clause that states that if the release could impact on future investigations then they can with hold the information. |
I can confirm that we have been contacted 174 times regarding the slow or non payment of withdrawals from Bet Butler (between 1 January 2014 and 1 October 2014). Please note that this figure is the number of enquiries, not the number of individuals who have contacted us (i.e. some individuals may have made a number of enquiries during this period).
(Please confirm.....)All details held on the manner in which BetButler operated it's business, notably how accounts were set up, whether pseudo accounts were used to channel client funds to bookmakers, and whether any official bookmaker accounts were held by BetButler
With regards to this question, we will neither confirm nor deny whether we hold information falling within the description specified in your request.
Disclosing detailed information about investigations will reveal methodologies and approaches which may help others avoid detection in future.
The Gambling Commission had the authority and the information to investigate BetButler over a period of 9 months. The volume of complaints and queries should've warrented that, and some action to protect customers, maybe stopping BetButler taking new customers until they could prove they were capable of servicing the existing ones?
Instead, what happened was the Gambling Commission did nothing, and BetButler closed it's own doors. They weren't pushed, they jumped.
Bet Butler had ceased trading before the revocation of their licence on 18 September 2014