Self-confessed chronic gambler Gavin Fineff is facing possible prison for the misappropriation of funds used to pay three major gambling companies he says targeted his custom.
A special investigation by the ABC cites the case of Fineff, who recently had to finally come clean to his family on the more than $8 million he lost over several years – much of which was not his.
The middle-aged financial planner and father was earning around $130k annually and making waves in his industry, helping cancer patients secure insurance payouts.
He began betting in the pub, soon flagged as a VIP. Betting on horses, he eagerly took to the online option via smartphone when the technology was launched, which ramped up his habit. His TAB account was assigned ‘VIP status’ and he was managed by a personal customer service officer, who regularly contacted him for special treatment.
“I was offered all sorts of things, events and experiences and bonus money to bet with,” he told the ABC. “They had reward systems for more deposits.”
The investigation found Fineff lost $1.5 million with TAB in one six-month period in 2017.
Despite his high salary, he did not have this kind of money to lose, and the source of the funds is now under investigation by NSW Police.
In February 2017 Tabcorp paid $45 million to settle a case involving suspicious betting where activity had not been reported to AUSTRAC, the Federal agency chartered with policing the financial system.
AUSTRAC’s ‘know your customer’ provision dictates all betting agencies must properly check identification documents, and check a person’s source of income in the instance of sudden heavy gambling or suspicious transactions. Justice Nye Perram found Tabcorp negligent on 105 occasions.
Tabcorp contacted Fineff about his annual income in May 2018. By that time he had lost $3.9 million with the company.
He relays that over nearly two years, between September 2016 and June 2018, there were 194 times where he deposited $10,000 or more into his TAB account, and 23 times where he withdrew more than $10,000 from his TAB account, including ten times where amounts exceeded $50,000.
Worried he was being investigated by Tabcorp he did not provide any information, and soon his account was frozen.
A few weeks later he received a call from an agent at Ladbrokes, offering a “superior experience” and things TAB could not do, with thousands of dollars in free bets to try it out. The consultant told Finell he had gotten his number by being a former employee of TAB.
The fact his TAB account had been frozen was no obstacle, and a new one was set up in a false name with Ladbrokes, without the need for identification, or Fineff apparently ever reading the company’s terms and conditions.
In the following 20 months he lost almost $700,000 to Ladbrokes.
A few months after starting this account he was contacted by a third company – BetEasy. Fineff recalls receiving the call, opening the account and losing his $50,000 in bonus bets, all within about 45 minutes. He says he was never asked for identification by BetEasy either.
The proliferation of the free bets was, he says, the driving force behind him losing $3.6 million with BetEasy over the next 16 months.
“In the first three months they gave me $1 million of bonus money to bet with.
“They were basically matching all my deposits and just giving me whatever I wanted.”
Australia does not have a national gambling regulator, but in recent years the Northern Territory Racing Commission has effectively been forced into the role by virtue of nearly two-dozen betting agencies setting up in Darwin for tax purposes.
Fineff says he has undergone intensive counselling, and takes responsibility for his actions, but believes the predatory practices of the sports betting companies played a role. This is what brought about his decision to speak out to the national broadcaster.
He laments that Tabcorp did not document his situation in March 2017, in line with AUSTRAC requirements, suggesting if it had “my life would be very different”.
