Compliance Updates
UKGC Imposes £2.9M Fine on Betfred’s Parent Company
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has imposed a fine of £2.87m on Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures. The operator has also received an official warning for failures at the business.
Leanne Oxley, Gambling Commission Director of Enforcement and Intelligence, said: “This is a further example of us taking action to investigate and sanction alarming failures.
We expect this gambling business and all other licensees to review this case and look closely to see if they need to make further improvements to demonstrate active compliance.
“Where standards do not improve, tougher enforcement will follow.”
Social responsibility failures included:
- There were no controls in place to prevent large levels of high velocity spend by new customers. One customer was allowed to lose £70,000 over a 10-hour period just a day after opening the account.
- Setting safer gambling interaction triggers too high and when customers’ spend increased considerably, which can be an indicator of harm, no further safer gambling account review was conducted in a timely manner– one customer was first interacted with when they had deposited £20,700 and lost £10,200 but then the next interaction did not occur until four months later when the customer had deposited £323,715 and lost £69,371.
Anti-money laundering failures included:
- Not fully taking into account the money laundering and terrorist financing (MLTF) risks connected to its business, in particular risks connected to country or geographic area, customers, transactions, and product and services.
- Not having appropriate policies, procedures and controls in place to manage and mitigate the MLTF risks, including thresholds that were inadequate, having insufficient information on customers and no evidence of ongoing monitoring prior to initial financial triggers being reached.
- Not ensuring that its policies, procedures and controls were implemented effectively, including not following guidance issued by the Commission and not taking into account any applicable learning or guidelines published by the Commission.
- Failing to thoroughly implement the measures described in the Money Laundering Regulations, including failing to identify the MLTF risks to which the business was subject and failing to establish and maintain policies, procedures and controls to manage and mitigate the risks effectively. The operator also provided inadequate employee training, failed to scrutinise transactions to ensure that they were consistent with their knowledge of the customer and their risk profile, and failed to conduct sufficient anti-money laundering, customer due diligence and source of funds checks.
Spinomenal, the leading iGaming content provider, has expanded its Latin American presence by registering as a service provider in Peru. The approval from Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR) allows Spinomenal to provide its casino titles to the country’s locally licensed operators.
With Peru’s recent introduction of new gaming regulations, the iGaming environment is set for an exciting transformation. Spinomenal is thrilled to be part of this dynamic evolution, offering our state-of-the-art gaming solutions to energise and enhance the gaming experience within Peru’s thriving iGaming community.
Peruvian players will now be able to enjoy Spinomenal’s popular portfolio of games and some of the gems available are Majestic King and Demi Gods V.
Spinomenal CO-CEO, Lior Shvartz commented: “Latin America continues to be a key region for us and we’re proud to now be able to offer our titles within the regulated Peruvian market. Games have been hand-picked for Peruvians based on localised knowledge of player preferences gained by our experience in the market prior to the new regulation.”
Department of Trust (dotrust.co.uk), the award-winning provider of financial risk assessments for safer gambling is poised to meet the challenges of the newly announced regulations on frictionless financial checks by the UK Gambling Commission and Betting and Gaming Council.
Under the new rules published by the Gambling Commission, operators have until August 30th to implement frictionless checks on all customers making £500 net deposits in any rolling 30-day period. These frictionless checks form part of a new regime designed to protect players at risk of financial harm and replace the current ad hoc approach to affordability checks.
Department of Trust also welcomes the interim voluntary code published today by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), the standards body representing over 90% of UK-regulated market operators. This code focuses on how responsible operators should support customers spending above the lower threshold set out by the Gambling Commission.
The supplier’s DoTrust Complete solution offers an integrated suite of frictionless and enhanced financial risk checks with a high level of automation capability -the only such tool built solely for safer gambling – and is perfectly positioned to help businesses navigate the newly regulated waters.
Charles Cohen, CEO of Department of Trust, said: “These important announcements flag the end of gambling’s ‘sus law’ where players faced seemingly arbitrary requests for personal information, operators were placed under a significant burden, and no one won
“We now know that in 120 days, every operator will need to perform frictionless checks on all players with net deposits in a 30-day rolling period of £500. A few months later this will fall to a much lower level.
“If operators want to protect their business, keep their customers and reduce costs, smart automation is the only answer.
“Department of Trust has spent over two years building the leading plug-and-play solution specifically for the gambling industry. Complete already automates over 90% of the processes required in both the new LCCP and BGC code. Now we know what the requirement will be, we are today committing to the goal of 100%. We want every operator and player to have instant assessments and sensible decisions cost-effectively. No one needs to lose sleep over this.”.
The post Department of Trust set to meet challenges of new affordability checks appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Swedish gaming giants’ games now available in the province of Córdoba’s newly regulated market
Play’n GO, the world’s leading casino entertainment provider, has today announced their expansion into yet another new regulated market, as the Swedish gaming giant has agreed a partnership with Betsson in the province of Córdoba, Argentina.
Argentina is currently in a process of regulation for online gaming purposes on a province-by-province basis, and the partnership with Betsson sees Play’n GO enter yet another regulated market, keeping up the momentum from 2023 that saw the company expand its global reach.
This announcement sees Betsson’s players in Córdoba gain access to Play’n GO’s entire catalogue of games, including classics such as Book of Dead, Reactoonz, and Moon Princess.
This announcement is a signal of intent from Play’n GO, who reiterate their commitment to be present in every regulated market in the world.
Michele Stefanelli, Sales Leader, LATAM and Southern Europe, Play’n GO said: “Our first foray into a new region is always exciting for us, and we’re looking forward to a successful partnership with Betsson in Córdoba. Players around the world, and especially in the LATAM region, have already shown their fondness for our content, and we’re quietly confident that this new region will be no different. We are on record with our commitment to a safe, regulated industry, and we’re very pleased to see that approach rolled out globally by lawmakers and operators alike.”
Maximiliano Bellio, Managing Director Betsson Argentina, added: “We’re pleased to welcome Play’n GO to the Betsson family here in the Córdoba region, and we look forward to many years of success together. Like Play’n GO, Betsson is committed to a sustainable industry model, so this partnership makes perfect sense for both parties. We’re sure our players will be as excited as we are once they start playing these games that have proven so popular around the world, so let’s get started.”
Play’n GO’s games are already available in the autonomous city of Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires Province within Argentina’s federal system.
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