White Hat Gaming Fined £1.3 Million for Inadequate Social Responsibility Standards

Online gambling operator White Hat Gaming was issued today a £1.3 million fine by the UKGC for AML and social responsibility failings.

Under Review Since Last Year

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has set a £1.3 million fine for licensed gaming operator White Hat Gaming (WHG) after identifying “inadequate anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility procedures”.

The UKGC launched an investigation into seven player accounts in January 2020 for issues that had occurred between October 2016 and March 2019 on the operator’s platforms, including Grandivy.com, 21casino.com, Hellocasino.com, and Dreamvegas.com. With its operating license under review, WHG was found to have failed to identify and monitor customers with a high risk of problem gambling or money laundering.

Those instances include WHG’s failure to establish the source of funds for a player who lost £70,000 over three months, and “ineffective interaction” with two customers. One of them lost £50,000 in six hours while the other one lost £85,000 in only 85 minutes.

The £1.3 million regulatory settlement was paid to the Commission’s National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms, the UKGC declared.

WHG Commits to Changing its Standards

WHG released today a public statement regarding the UKGC’s decision, announcing its commitment to raising its standards and policies. The company said that it has taken “proactive steps to ensure all findings were addressed and recommendations implemented.”

The operator, which holds a combined remote license, declared that it “recognizes the importance of publicizing the findings of regulatory investigations to assist the wider industry in learning from any shortcomings and to assist in the general improvement of the regulatory compliance of the industry as a whole,” noting the “historical nature” of the review and WHG’s constant efforts towards fighting problem-gambling in the UK.

Commending its work with the UKGC in aligning its policies and protocols with best practice and the Commission’s standards, WHG said it will continue “to invest in people, policies, and processes, in the areas of safer gambling, affordability, and AML with customer sustainability remaining central to the operating principles at [the company]”.