The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) says its online gambling licensees can learn valuable lessons from last year’s ‘bonus abuse’ kerfuffle involving TGP Europe gambling sites.

In April 2016, the Isle of Man-based TGP Europe Ltd and Fesuge Ltd suspended over 5k customer accounts at four of the companies’ betting sites – 12Bet, 138.com, Fun88 and TLCBet – over what the companies alleged was abuse of bonus offers related to the 2016 Cheltenham racing festival.

TGP and Fesuge are both UKGC licensees, and thus the companies reported the account suspensions via a key event submission. The UKGC and the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS) reported receiving over 1k complaints from around 800 individual customers stemming from the suspensions.

The UKGC says both TGP and Fesuge sought a voluntary settlement of the matter rather than a full license review. The UKGC said both companies cooperated with the investigation and acknowledged that their handling of the matter was “insufficient” and that their T&C’s were “unclear and ambiguous” regarding the bonus abuse policy.