UKGC hits three operators with £4.5m penalty package for AML failings
Operators including mFortune-owned InTouch Games and GiG’s Betit Group identified as part of wider investigation into online sector
The Gambling Commission (UKGC) has levied penalty packages on three gambling operators for a total of £4.5m for failings in their respective money laundering and safer gambling policies.
MFortune operator InTouch Games paid £2.2m, while Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) paid a total of £2.1m in regulatory settlements after two separate breaches by its subsidiaries Betit Operations Limited and MT Secure Trade .
Betit paid £1.4m and MT paid £700,000, while a third company BestBet Limited will pay a total of £230,972 for “failing to put in place effective safeguards to prevent money laundering and keep consumers safe from gambling harm”.
UKGC executive director Richard Watson said the fines were part of the Commission’s efforts to raise standards throughout the online sector.
“We expect operators to know their customers and to ask the right questions to make sure they meet their anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations,” Watson added.
InTouch Games was issued with its penalty after the UKGC identified weaknesses in its AML risk assessments and failing to have appropriate procedures in place to prevent money laundering.
The UKGC identified similar failings in Betit, with additional failures in its due diligence procedures being identified in the investigation. The remaining two operators, MT Secure Trade and BestBet Limited, were fined for AML risk assessment failings and failures in customer interaction and social responsibility policies.
Full details of the cases and the operator responses can be found here.
The penalties form part of an ongoing enquiry by the UKGC into the online casino sector, with regulators conducting assessments of 123 online operators over the last 18 months.
Of these operators, 45 were asked to submit an action plan to raise their standards, with the UKGC confirming that 38 have already showed signs of improvement. A further 34 were highlighted by the UKGC as having minor issues which have been or are in the process of being remedied.