Sky Bet Failed To Protect Vulnerable Customers, Says Watchdog Sky Bet stopped working to protect susceptible clients, says watchdog Sky Bet is to pay ₤ 1m for "stopping working to safeguard susceptible consumers", the Gambling Commission has stated. It did not stop issue gamblers even after they had actually asked to be banned from its websites, the guard dog stated. Sky Bet president Richard Flint said the company accepted that it "needed to do more" to stop self-excluded gamblers from opening replicate accounts. He included that Sky Bet had attempted to return the cash in their accounts. People who feel they are having trouble controlling their gambling can ask betting firms to refuse their service. But 736 self-excluded Sky Bet consumers were able to open and utilize duplicate accounts, the Gambling Commission stated. In addition, about 50,000 people who had excluded themselves got marketing emails, texts or push notices through a mobile app. And 36,748 customers did not get the balance on their account returned after self-excluding. Richard Watson, Gambling Commission program director, stated: "This was a serious failure impacting countless potentially vulnerable clients and the ₤ 1m charge package must act as an alerting to all gambling services. "Sky Bet reported the problems to us rapidly, co-operated with us and has taken this investigation seriously." Betting temptation Matt, a student accountant from London, began betting as quickly as he turned 18. He states he lost as much as ₤ 30,000. "It's a 'lad culture' thing," the 22-year-old recently told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. "You can't go to the club on a Saturday afternoon without having the football on the TV, and then clearly there's adverts that come on and you get the desire to wager. "I could not enjoy a game of football without having a bet on it.