Gamesys Hit With £6M Fine from the UK Gambling Commission

The gambling regulator in the UK, the Gambling Commission, is tasked with the regulation of such activities in the country. The Commission constantly monitors the market, ensuring licensees comply with the established regulations and the conditions of their license. Whenever breaches are uncovered, the regulator imposes penalties, and this is precisely the case with Gamesys Operations Limited.

On Wednesday, the Gambling Commission revealed that the operator received a £6 million ($7.6 million) financial penalty. The hefty fine comes after an investigation by the regulator uncovered breaches by Gamesys related to anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility rules.

According to the Commission, the failings were uncovered during a compliance assessment dating back to May 2022. The gambling watchdog explained that the AML and social responsibility breaches occurred between November 2021 and July 2022. In addition to the multi-million penalty, Gamesys would need to ensure its compliance with the AML and safer gambling regulations and undergo a third-party audit.

Kay Roberts, the Commission’s executive director, revealed that an ongoing focus for the regulator is to ensure that gambling licensees comply with the established rules. Additionally, she highlighted the importance of gambling operators offering safe and fair activities that are also free from crime. “We take this responsibility extremely seriously and whenever we find failures in policies and procedures then the business can expect significant regulatory action,” Roberts explained in conclusion.

The Gambling Regulator Describes the Breaches

Describing Gamesys’ breaches, the Commission noted that some customers were able to avoid the operator’s AML triggers. This enabled certain individuals to spend a lot of money without proper AML checks. Examples highlighted by the gambling watchdog included a customer who deposited £34,280 ($43,600) over five and a half months, while another was able to deposit £18,884 ($24,000) for a period of six months.

Additional AML failures of the operator were related to customer due diligence. According to the Commission, in some cases, Gamesys conducted “inadequate customer due diligence” and was over-reliant on third-party information or verbal assurances from customers.

Besides AML breaches, the Commission flagged social responsibility failures. The gambling regulator said Gamesys wasn’t able to always identify customers who may be at risk of gambling harm. As an example, the Commission explained that the operator’s deposit limit system failed to identify the risk of gambling harm quickly enough with one customer losing £17,482 ($22,300) just over a month after opening an account while another losing £5,968 ($7,600) five weeks their account was open.

Other social responsibility failures were related to insufficient interaction with customers who may be experiencing gambling harm. One Gamesys customer who lost nearly £10,000 ($12,700) was approached by the operator and the “responsible gambling interaction” was related to recommending promotions and new games, the Commission said.