The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has imposed a fine of £1,407,834 on AG Communications Limited for Social Responsibility (SR) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) failures.

The operator, which trades as AspireGlobal and runs 58 websites, will pay the money to socially responsible causes as part of a settlement with the Commission.

Social responsibility failures included:

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• not having effective systems in place to prevent customers spending significant amounts of money in a short period of time before an assessment was made as to whether the customer was potentially at risk of gambling related harm. This raised concern that velocity of spend was not identified or acted upon quickly enough

• failing to conduct a safer gambling interaction despite one customer losing £6000 in 48 hours. A telephone interaction was attempted but only when the daily loss limit of £5000 in 24 hours was reached

• one customer was able to deposit and lose £7000 in just over four hours in the early hours. This customer was able to play through the backstop in place at the time due to a system error which failed to prevent the customer from depositing above the backstop limit. A manual review of the customer did not identify the fact they had played through the backstop trigger

• one customer was able to open a significant number of gambling accounts despite the fact they had previously self-excluded.

Anti-money laundering failures included:

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• AML/Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) policies and procedures were too reliant on financial thresholds

• when customers hit a medium, medium/high or high ML risk score they were not subject to a manual Enhanced Customer Due Diligence (ECDD) check until a financial trigger was hit

• when financial thresholds were reached, there were delays in completing ECDD checks. One customer who reached the financial threshold did not have an ECDD review conducted until a week later

• not following its policy regarding ECDD checks. One customer who reached a financial threshold but did not have a high AML risk score, did not have a manual ECDD review until eight days later. This was contrary to AG Communications Limited’s policy.

This is the second time AG Communications Limited is facing regulatory action – in 2022 the operator paid £237,600 for AML failures.

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John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, said: “This case marks the second occasion that this operator has been subject to enforcement action. Its failure to uphold anti-money laundering standards, delays in necessary interventions, and deficiencies in social responsibility measures are wholly unacceptable.

“Today’s outcome underscores the gravity of these breaches. It is essential that operators not only implement and maintain robust anti-money laundering policies, procedures, and controls but also act swiftly and decisively in response to any indications of suspicious activity. Effective social responsibility measures must be in place at all times to ensure that consumers identified as at risk receive timely and appropriate intervention.

“This case stands as a clear warning to all operators that repeated regulatory failings will result in increasingly stringent enforcement action.”

The Thailand’s Entertainment Complex Bill has been amended, removing the requirement that Thais must show they have at least 50 million in a fixed deposit before being allowed into the planned casino-entertainment complex.

It has been replaced by the need to have filed three-years of income tax returns.

The requirement is in Section 65 of the draft Entertainment Complex Bill, which has been under scrutiny by the Council of State, the government’s legal advisory body.

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Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Pichai Chunhavajira said the draft had now been reviewed by the council and revisions proposed to meet its objectives, including listening to feedback from the public.

The revised draft legislation had been signed by Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnivirakul and sent to the cabinet secretariat on Feb 28, but it would not be on this week’s cabinet agenda, Mr Pichai said.

The process prior to submitting the bill to the cabinet would take about two weeks, he said.

Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat confirmed that the 50 million baht requirement for casino entry had been removed and replaced by the requirement that Thais must have submitted three-years of tax returns.

The casino entrance fee remained at 5000 baht, he said.

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“The Ministry has checked the data and found there are only 10,000 Thai accounts with at least 50 million baht. So, the former requirement would push people to gamble elsewhere, which could be illegal. This amendment has been agreed on by the ministry and the Council of State,” Mr Julapun said.

He said the draft bill would be submitted to the cabinet for approval as soon as possible. He expected this would be during the current parliamentary session.

On Monday, representatives of several protest groups – the Network of Students and People for Thailand’s Reform, the Centre of People for the Protection of the Monarchy, and the Dharma Army – gathered near government house in Bangkok.

They submitted a letter to the prime minister opposing passage of the legislation. They argued that it would be harmful to the people, the country and the principles of all religions.