Danish Regulator Rebukes Mr Green’s AML Reporting Choices

At the start of April, Denmark’s gambling regulator, Spillemyndigheden, issued a fresh report highlighting its greatest achievements in the fight against illegal gambling in 2023.

The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) took the opportunity to further confirm that the monitoring of illegal gambling offerings will continue to be one of its priorities.

In recent news, the regulator reprimanded the 888-owned operator, Mr Green, regarding the way it failed to notify the Money Laundering Secretariat regarding a suspected suspicious transaction.

Mr Green was handed a reprimand on April 10 after the regulator determined two different cases in which the company did not properly comply with the current regulations in the industry.

No Obligation for Action for Mr Green 

According to the Danish Anti-Money Laundering Act Act on Measures to Prevent Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (AML Act), companies need to instantly notify the Money Laundering Secretariat whenever they know, suspect, or have “reasonable grounds” to suspect that fund, an activity, or a transaction “is or has been related to money laundering or terrorist financing.”

The DGA explained that while the reprimand does not feature an obligation for action by the operator since the breach is no longer occurring, Mr Green has been slapped with three orders related to breaches tied to internal controls, risk assessments, and a lack of necessary documentation.

As the DGA explained, the breach related to internal controls occurred because of lacking written procedures on the way in-house controls regarding the interval at which controls should be performed.

In relation to the insufficient risk assessment order, the regulator established that the procedure used by Mr Green failed to feature distinct assessments for payment solutions.

The Danish law requires separate risk assessments to be utilized for “individual payment solutions and delivery channels” together with additional risk assessments for the risk factors tied to these factors.

Mr Green also failed to document the controls used to assess internal controls in a sufficient manner, which triggered the regulator the need to issue the third order. 

All three audit findings were revealed at the end of a routine audit by the regulator, as explained by a spokesperson for 888.

Mr Green to Submit Revised Documents by June 10

The DGA has required the 2007-based gambling company that offers sports betting and online casino to send a revised risk assessment as well as a revised business procedure for internal controls.

The documents must be sent by June 10 at the latest.

At the same time, the regulator has also asked the company acquired by 888 Holdings for £2.2 billion in July 2022 to submit documents related to the final point by October 10.

The spokesperson confirmed they were closely working with the DGA while working on making “some minor amendments” to their AML processes and related documents that accompany it.

In August 2021, Mr Green was fined $3.62 million and received recommendations to improve its KYC and AML practices in Sweden.

The following year, in January 2022, the operator was scolded for breaching Denmark’s money laundering regulations regarding one of its players.