Entain to pay record £17m fine following further social responsibility and money laundering failings. The operator risks losing a licence to operate in the UK. (Image from succo at pixabay.com)
In astonishing news, Entain, one of the UK’s largest online and land-based gambling operators, is at risk of losing its licence to operate in the UK. This comes after the UK Gambling Commission ordered the firm to pay a £17 million settlement, following findings the firm had committed multiple social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.
The reason the settlement is so large is that this is the second time in three years that the UKGC has discovered similar failings at Entain. Additionally, these latest failings come after the UK Government had announced it was performing a review of UK gambling laws in an attempt to improve how the gambling industry tackles problem gambling and money laundering. Although problem gambling rates have reduced in recent months, the government is considering taking steps, such as implementing affordability checks, to determine if players qualify to gamble.
The failings were discovered during an investigation that followed a compliance assessment. A resulting regulatory review found that land-based establishments and online gambling platforms failed to adequately adhere to money laundering and safer gambling processes between December 2019 and October 2020.
The £17 million settlement agreed by the Entain Group and the UKGC is for failings found in the group’s online and offline operations. The group will pay £13 million for failings discovered at the group’s online business LC International Limited. The failings accoutred across many of the 13 websites the company operates, including Bwin.com, Coral.co.uk, FoxyBigo.com, and Ladbrokes.com. As for the other £3 million, that is for failures discovered at the Entain Group’s land-based premises in the UK.
Second Fine in Three years: The severity of this latest settlement is because lessons have not been learnt since the UKGC fined the group £5.9 million for similar failings in 2019. Essentially, Entain, which offers online casinos featuring live casino games and virtual video slots from major brands including Evolution, has not taken the necessary steps to improve.
The UKGC has Highlighted Several Incidents Which Triggered this Record Settlement
Many of the incidents highlighted by the UKGC publication are major social responsibility failings. The incidents show the Entain Group showed inaction while customers were obviously showing signs of gambling addiction.
One customer was allowed to continue gambling throughout the night for 18 months and lost £230,845 in the process. During that time, there was just a single chat interaction with the customer. Another customer who had lost £60,000 within a year at Coral and had his account closed due to not providing an adequate source of funds, was able to open an account at another of the group’s brands and spend £30,000 in a single day.
Another highlighted incident was a customer who was allowed to wager £742,000 across 14 months, with the operator performing adequate checks on whether the customer could afford such outgoings. Similarly, a customer known to live in social housing was able to spend £186,000 in half a year.
Those are just some of the failings the regulatory review found, but there were many more. Entain had not asked customers for a source of funds as they continued to deposit, wager, and lose hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Appointed in June, the UKGC’s new Chief Executive, Andrew Rhodes, commented:
This is the second time this operator has fallen foul of rules in place to make gambling safer and crime free. The failings are completely unacceptable. We remind operators that we constantly monitor them and continued or serious failings could result in the loss of an operating license.
The Settlement to go to Social Responsibility Causes
Although the £17 million settlement looks like a fine, it is actually an agreement made between the Entain Group and the UK Gambling Commission. The latter agreed to the settlement in order to avoid facing legal proceedings. That alone shows the seriousness of the failings and how close the UKGC had come to taking legal action or suspending Entain’s licence.
The £17 will go to socially responsible processes while there are other conditions attached as well. Entain will face a third-party audit in the next 12 months and will have to come up with and oversee an improvement plan.
The UKGC has always taken a hard line against those that do not adhere to its regulations. Entain is not the first major UK operator to face the wrath of the regulator. 888 received an £9.4 million fine for similar failings earlier this year. 888 has since accepted that fine and committed to improving how it tackles problem gambling.
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