The UK Gambling Commission is on a crusade, cracking down on online casinos and licensing violations. Five online casinos are reviewed and may even lose their licenses.
Anti-money laundering and player compliance failures
Last week the UKGC announced that it was opening investigations into a total of 17 UK-facing online casinos. The casinos are believed to have shown serious failings in deploying thorough anti-money laundering controls. Additionally problem gambling has not been correctly supervised and addressed by too many casinos and advertising standards have not been adhered to either.
In the first instance the UKGC published a letter to all licensees reminding them to install proper controls on all levels concerning money laundering and player protection.
But as many as 17 casinos are under investigation, five of which will have the licenses reviewed as well.
The commission crackdown
The UKGC letter addresses the fact that many licensees have not properly assessed the risk of money laundering, including the failure to spot and report irregularities that may have occurred.
Open communication with players who may be in danger of developing a gambling problem or those that already show signs of problematic gambling is also something that few online casinos seem to engage in.
Hence the investigation by the UKGC after these preliminary findings, which are apparently not as comprehensive as they could be.
Heavy fines
The UKGC already imposed a few heavy fines on a number of online casinos in 2017. Paddy Power was issued with a £280,000 fine for poor anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls. Later BGO was fined with £300,000 due to misleading ads and Betfred was even slapped with a fine of £800,000, once again for insufficient anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls.
Any online casinos that are part of the ongoing investigation are likely going to have to face heavy fines as well. Additionally sanctions may be imposed. The five casinos facing a loss of license will no longer be allowed to offer their services in the UK, should it come to that.