UKGC issues £300,000 fine to Casino 36 over AML and social responsibility failures
UK land-based casino operator Casino 36 has been fined £300,000 by the UK Gambling Commission after an investigation revealed failings in its anti-money laundering and social responsibility policies.
The operator failed to ensure adequate source of funds, source of wealth and enhanced due diligence checks on 33 of its customers during a period from November 2017 to October 2018, according to the UKGC.
In addition, investigators found Casino 36 had failed to sufficiently interact with customers who had demonstrated signs of gambling related harm.
As part of its regulatory settlement with the UKGC, the personal management licence holders of Casino 36 are obliged to undertake extra training on anti-money laundering and social responsibility within three months.
Personal management licence holders at Casino 36 must undertake extra training as part of a penalty package for money laundering and social responsibility failures. https://t.co/wwAy3lYLwv pic.twitter.com/CdUrY4rTYP
— Gambling Commission (@GamRegGB) July 11, 2019
In addition to this Casino 36 will divest £147,741 of funds received from these individuals and make a payment of £152,259 in lieu of a fine for breaching current licencing conditions and codes of practice. It will also pay £18,648 to cover the UKGC’s investigation costs.
Although no stolen funds were placed through the casino operator, Richard Watson, UKGC executive director said the failings were “simply not acceptable” due to the potential damage to at risk players.
In a statement Casino 36 acknowledged several its policies which were in force at the time of the highlighted failures were “ineffective”, adding that it had “evolved” these policies in period following the investigation.
Following this fine, Casino 36’s UK licence will have additional conditions added obliging the operator to conduct enhanced due diligence of its top 250 customers and analyse the current competencies of its staff in AML and source of funds procedures.
In addition, all internal controls and systems must be analysed annually.
“Operators have to understand their customer base. This can only be achieved if they know their customers and ask the right questions to meet both their anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations,” Watson added.