Smarkets's skullduggery

[Michael5482]

Just had my account at smarkets closed today, after a lengthy "proof of wealth and funds" review, in which I provided everything they asked for, bank statements, paypal statements, including a statement from a savings account with over 30k in it.

Reason given: "we are unable to sufficiently verify your source of funds and wealth". I clearly told them I had a pension coming in (on my bank statements), a large saving a/c (statement provided), and I topped up my pension by trading on Betfair, and matched betting (mostly using smarkets). All transparent. Nothing hidden. So how come they cant verify it?

tbh everyone is on a hiding to nothing, having funds or wealth is pretty much meaningless now when it comes to gambling.

Have £1500 a month coming in on a pension "Nah shouldn't be gambling with your pension income anyway"
Have £30,000k in savings "Nah need to know where it all came from to penny and you shouldn't be gambling with your savings anyway"
Have 3 properties all owned and paid for producing a rental yield of 7% of the property value "Nah need to know where the money came from to buy them and you shouldn't be gambling with money from properties anyway"
Have an invesment portfolio with AJ Bell "Nah need to know where it all came from to the penny and you shouldn't be gambing with investments anyway, only middle/upper class rich people can do that"
My account is £7k up so why can't I just use that to put a bet on that makes sense? "So you want to use the money you've won over thre last 3 months to put another bet on? Are you fuckin stupid, Gambling Commission says no and our computer says no but we both tell lies and blame each other about financial checks so we can do them hehe"

"Anyway thanks for giving us all this information we've informed HMRC on your behalf you have rather alot of money stashed we thought they should know about it"

"FFS I only wanted a 15p Lucky15 at Kempton Park, I'll be lucky to get a spin on the roullete now!" "Did you say spin? Deposit anything you like, we'll throw some free spins in and spin ya life away with us YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAA"

"PS don't forgot your sportsbook account is still blocked"

[Euler]

Part of the problem here is that the GC have put compliance departments front and centre of everything and there just isn't the resource, skill or knowledge in this department to make a rational decision. Instead they err on the side of caution to avoid a fine and just reject everybody. It's totally crazy.

[weemac]

The coup de grace is that these companies who have to "legitimately" enforce these strictures can also hide behind them in order to to rid themselves of winners who hurt their profitability.