Two online casinos fined by the Gambling Commission
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Investigations conducted by the Gambling Commission have revealed social responsibility failures at the businesses of two online casinos. Both casinos will have to pay a total of £1.3m ($1.77m) in fines.
One of the businesses, Rank Digital Gaming (Alderney), trading as bellacasino.com, grosnovercasino.com, meccabingo.com and messagames.com, will pay a £700,557 regulatory settlement for social responsibility failures.
The key failings included failure to comply with the Social Responsibility Code in regard to customer interaction between October 2019 and February 2021, as well as in regard to the identification of individual customers between June 2020 and February 2021.
Another social responsibility failure was to do with self-exclusion.
The second company, Annexio (Jersey), trading as lottogo.com, will pay £612,000 in regulatory settlement for both social responsibility and money laundering failures.
The investigation revealed a breach of the Licence Condition in relation to the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as failure to comply with the Social Responsibility Code in regard to customer interaction.
The inquiry also showed a breach of the Licence Condition in relation to reporting certain key events and other reportable events.
The National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms will benefit from the settlement money.
Helen Venn, Gambling Commission Executive Director, commented on the decision: “We expect high standards from operators to ensure gambling in Britain is safe and crime-free. Those businesses that fail to meet these standards will find themselves facing costly regulatory action.”
The Commission added that all operators are expected to consider the issues that were outlined and review their own practices to better identify, and implement the required changes.
