UK Gambling Commission warns industry again

The UK Gambling Commission issued a further warning Thursday that betting companies licensed in its jurisdiction will face a “relentless escalation” in financial penalties if they do not step up controls in areas such as money laundering and problem gamblers.

The Commission has recently issued million pound sterling fines to non-compliant gambling companies, the latest being a GBP 2 million fine on Kindred Group subsidiary 32Red online casino (see previous report).

In a statement Thursday the regulator revealed that it issued GBP 18 million worth of fines in the 12 months to April 1, up from just GBP 1.6 million a year earlier.

CEO Neil McArthur warned that fines would escalate, and the Commission could take tougher regulatory action, such as revoking licensing.

The Commission has released an “enforcement report” detailing cases where betting groups have failed to adhere to gambling regulations. This includes 10 occasions in which stolen money was used to gamble, including when the source of funds was taken from employers or through defrauding elderly victims. In other cases, inadequate checks were made on “VIP customers” who were losing hundreds of thousands of pounds, despite exhibiting signs of being problem gamblers.

McArthur said in the Commission statement:

“We recognised that our approach to enforcement has been effective to an extent, [but] wasn’t driving the pace of change and a culture of continuous improvement. That’s why we communicated we would make this step change in terms of penalty packages. We’ve made it clear that we will continue to be firm but fair. The phrase I’ve tended to use is there will be ‘relentless escalation’ if they don’t get compliance levels right, until we get the standards we expect.”

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