SPONSORED - Gambling company Entain Group has been ordered to pay £17-million for failing to uphold its social responsibility and anti-money laundering requirements.
The initial £14-million is to be paid for breaches relating to the company’s online business LC International Limited, which runs 13 websites, including ladbrokes.com, foxybingo.com, and coral.co.uk.
Entain will pay a further £3-million for similar offences at its Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming Limited operation, which runs 2,746 gambling premises across Britain.
The entire £17-million will be used for socially responsible purposes, in accordance with the regulatory settlement. Other measures to be implemented include new licence conditions to ensure a business board member oversees an improvement plan and a third-party compliance audit to confirm the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice are being met, to take place within 12 months.
Andrew Rhodes, Gambling Commission chief executive, said: “Our investigation revealed serious failures that have resulted in the largest enforcement outcome to date.
“There were completely unacceptable anti-money laundering and safer gambling failures. Operators are reminded they must never place commercial considerations over compliance.
“This is the second time this operator has fallen foul of rules in place to make gambling safer and crime-free.
“They should be aware that we will be monitoring them very carefully, and further serious breaches will make the removal of their licence to operate a very real possibility. We expect better, and consumers deserve better.”
The long lists of failures include the following:
Social responsibility failures:
· being slow to interact with, or not interacting with certain customers to minimise their risk of experiencing gambling-related harm
· allowing customers to open multiple accounts with the Licensee’s other brands (subject to enquiries and restrictions)
· overseeing the failure of local staff or area managers to escalate potential concerns with customers sooner
Anti-money laundering failures:
· failing to conduct an adequate risk assessment of their online business being used for money laundering and terrorist financing
· allowing online customers to deposit large amounts without conducting sufficient SOF checks
· failing to carry out enhanced customer due diligence checks soon enough
· placing excessive reliance on open-source information – one online consumer was allowed to deposit £140,700 between December 2019 and October 2020, with a SOF check not occurring until August 2020
· allowing customers to bet large amounts of money (up to £168,000 on shop terminals over eight months) without monitoring or scrutinisation.
The size of the fine was likely related to previous offences of a similar nature. The severity and potential consequences of these failures were probably also taken into consideration when deciding the penalty.
Compliance failures in iGaming could also include other issues such as inadequate GDPR, lack of transparency or consistency or breaching advertising guidelines. Gambling operators are required to ensure correct compliance procedures are carried out by themselves, their partners and affiliates to ensure against receiving penalties such as these.