The regulator identified anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.
UK.- The Gambling Commission has hit Stoke-on-Trent-based bet365 with a £582,120 fine for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures. Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC, holder of bet365’s bingo and casino product licence, will pay £343,035 while Hillside (UK Sports) ENC, holder of its betting licence, will pay the rest.
The regulator identified several failings in a compliance assessment in March 2023. One involved interactions with customers, which the Gambling Commission said were often not meaningful because they were not tailored to a specific customer journey or spectrum of harm.
The regulator also found that bet365’s Early Risk Detection System was “not demonstrably effective” in analysing the impact of interactions on customer behaviour and predicting the need for further action. The operator was also unable to effectively determine if a customer had read and understood the information or advice it gave.
As for anti-money laundering failures, the Gambling Commission found shortcomings in enhanced customer due diligence and know-your-customer triggers. It also found that bet365 failed to make financial sanctions checks and independent verification checks on new customers before they made their initial deposits, and it over-relied on customers’ annual self-verification.
Kay Roberts, executive director of operations at the UKGC, said: “We expect high standards from operators in terms of keeping gambling safe, fair and crime-free, and will always take action to correct any failings. This operator is very aware that a repeat of these failings will result in escalating regulatory action.”
Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC and Hillside (UK Sports) ENC have accepted the regulator’s findings.
Meanwhile, the Gambling Commission is to go ahead with a proposal to increase operators’ requirement to submit regulatory returns from once a year to once every three months. General and regulatory returns Code Provision 15.3.1 will be amended to require quarterly submissions.
Regulatory returns are used to check that licensed gambling operators are in the right fee category and to compile industry statistics and other data. While some had argued for a 42-day window, the regulator has decided that the period for the submission of regulatory returns will be 28 days.
