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Operator Star Racing will pay a fine of £594,000 ($774,834) due to company failings in anti-money laundering and social responsibility. Additionally, the operator, doing business as Star Sports, will get a formal warning and have licence restrictions imposed.
Failures to prevent money laundering included allowing customers to deposit huge amounts of money before obtaining the source of funds information and failing to analyse the source of funds information when it was obtained. These failures occurred at the time of the compliance assessment.
The company’s failings in terms of social responsibility included failing to show that it understood the impact and efficiency of customer contacts in terms of minimising customer risk.
The failings happened in the period from March 2020 to May 2021.
The specific course of action includes issuing a warning to the licensee in accordance with Section 117(1)(a) of the Act, and Licence Condition 12.1.2, which calls for operators headquartered in foreign countries to adhere to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Transfer of Funds (Information of the Payer) Regulations 2017.
Additionally, licensees are required by Social Responsibility Code Provision (SRCP) 3.4.1, paragraphs 1 and 2, to interact with consumers in a way that reduces the likelihood that they may suffer damages related to gaming and to consider the Commission’s customer interaction recommendations.
Recently, after also being found guilty of social responsibility and anti-money laundering violations by the UK regulator in June, Videoslots agreed to pay a £2m ($2.5m) compensation to the Gambling Commission.
In a statement, Gambling Commission Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes said of the punitive action: “When we launched this investigation, the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming, serious consideration was given to licence suspension.”
