- with readers working within the Securities & Investment industries
Niall Hearty of Rahman Ravelli outlines the case and the issues involved.
The company that owns betting firm Unibet has been fined £10 million for money laundering and customer risk failures.
Platinum Gaming Limited, which also operates Bingo.com, was fined by the Gambling Commission, which also issued the company with a warning and ordered it to undergo a third-party audit. Platinum was ordered to pay £2.9 million two years ago for similar failings.
In the Gambling Commission's investigation, the company failed to identify one customer as being at risk of harm, despite that person losing £5,000 within 24 hours of registering with it. That customer went on to lose £16,000 over three months. Another customer reached their monthly loss limit six times, losing more than £31,000, but the company did nothing. The company also failed to flag up an at-risk customer who lost £2,500 within 16 minutes of signing up to bet.
Some customers who had accounts closed due to anti-money laundering breaches or terrorist funding concerns were able to rejoin and resume gambling with the company. The Gambling Commission said there was no evidence that potential indicators of high risk, such as the number of transactions and the scale of losses, were being considered when customer reviews were being conducted.
Largest
The penalty imposed on Platinum is the largest handed down by the Gambling Commission this year, and among the biggest it has ever issued.
The Commission's director of enforcement, John Pierce, said: "The case revealed serious shortcomings in customer interaction systems, including failures to identify and act on clear markers of harm.
"These included consumers losing thousands within hours or days of registration, repeatedly breaching loss limits, and exhibiting patterns of binge and high-velocity gambling without appropriate intervention. Significant anti-money laundering failures were also identified."
"Senior leaders must take ownership of compliance outcomes and ensure lessons are embedded across the organisation, supported by structured reporting and board-level oversight.''
Platinum Gaming Limited's shareholders will have concerns that previous lessons were not learnt, given that the parent company's shares dipped as a consequence of this enforcement action. Perhaps this can serve as a reminder that serious shortcomings will not be tolerated, and that robust policies must always be implemented and constantly reviewed.
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