In a move Australia’s national broadcaster said “will send tremors through the industry,” a former financial planner is seeking to recover millions of dollars he stole to fund his gambling by suing three sportsbooks and two former VIP customer managers.
The latter suit against two former executive customer managers, George Khoury and Steven Bedwell, turns Gavin Fineff’s legal actions into what a leading Sydney attorney said is “a landmark case.”
Fineff is suing Ladbrokes-owner Entain, Sportsbet, and Tabcorp, alleging the sportsbooks encouraged him to regularly bet large sums without running checks into money’s origin or whether Fineff could be “engaging in illegal behavior to fund his multimillion-dollar gambling habit.”
incentivized him to open new betting accounts”
Fineff’s suit against Khoury and Bedwell claims the pair “incentivized him to open new betting accounts after he had stopped gambling.” He also alleges the VIP pair helped to “facilitate his reckless punting while ignoring red flag behaviors.”
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Fineff was sentenced in 2023 to nine years in prison for defrauding 12 victims of over AU$3m ($1.9m) to fund his gambling addiction.
Sydney barrister Geoffrey Watson SC, who ABC reports has advised the plaintiff’s legal team, said that Fineff’s case will argue the three sportsbooks were well aware of the plaintiff’s vulnerability, that they preyed on it, getting him to gamble and lose “more and more.” Watson added that Fineff’s case will argue that it was the sportsbooks’ “knowing action” in helping him bet and gamble more that “has made them liable to pay damages.”
If his case wins, it will be the victims of Fineff’s crimes that financially benefit, not the plaintiff himself, who Watson states “won’t get a penny.”
“If this is successful, it will change the gambling industry in Australia,” Watson stated.
