Ladbrokes and Coral owner to pay ₤ 585m over bribery allegations

5 December 2023

ByEsyllt Carr
Business press reporter, BBC News

Gambling giant Entain will pay HMRC ₤ 585m to settle over bribery accusations relating to a Turkish company that it formerly owned.

The settlement was approved by the Royal Courts of Justice in a hearing on Tuesday.

Entain, which owns Ladbrokes, will also make a charitable contribution of ₤ 20m and pay towards the expenses of the case.

Its chairman included that the group had "profoundly altered" since the sale.

The payments become part of a delayed prosecution agreement (DPA), that will be made in instalments over the next 4 years.

The arrangement permits a prosecution to be suspended for a specified duration offered the organisation satisfies specific specific conditions.

DPAs can be used for fraud, bribery and other economic criminal offense. They apply to organisations, never people. The DPA is one of the most significant business criminal settlements ever reached in the UK and the very first for the CPS.

Entain will likewise make a contribution of ₤ 10m towards the yohaig code expenses sustained by HMRC and the Crown Prosecution Service throughout the case.

The examination by HMRC involved a Turkish-facing company that was sold by the Group in 2017. The probe involved the activities of previous workers and former 3rd party suppliers.

In particular, it was looking at accusations that Entain, which was then understood as GVC, failed to have sufficient treatments in place to avoid bribery.

Since then, Entain states the group has actually carried out a detailed review of its anti-bribery policies and treatments.

In a declaration, Barry Gibson, Entain's chairman, said: "this promotion code is the last step in a process that has actually hung over our business because HMRC launched its investigation into an organization that was offered by a previous management group six years earlier."

"We have co-operated extensively and proactively at every phase of the procedure which, I am delighted to state, has actually been identified by the Court," he included.

"Entain has now basically and exceptionally changed. We can now focus on the future."

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