Casumo casino has been fined £6 million by the UKGC for various failings regarding anti-money laundering and social responsibility. Here is what happened.
Historical failings at Casumo
As we know, the UK Gambling Commission is incredibly vigilant when it comes to the failings of their license holders. The commission conducts regular investigations and one such investigation unearthed a number of failings at Casumo casino.
The audit undertaken by the UKGC took place between October 2019 and January 2020. The actual failings took place earlier, however, during a phase of super-growth, when the casino was still in its start-up phase. Casumo was founded in 2012.
In any case, the allegations against Casumo include violation of anti-money laundering laws, where the casino failed to properly investigate the source of funding for multiple very large deposits. Necessary AML checks were not conducted and bank statements provided by customers were also not properly checked.
There were also significant failings in their social responsibility department when several customers lost a lot of money, but the casino failed to properly interact with them and identify problematic gambling behaviours.
As such, one gambler was allowed to lose £1.1 million in the course of three years. Another lost £65,000 in a month and yet another player lost £59,000 during a mere 90-minute window. Other cases have been highlighted as well.
Improvements at Casumo
Whilst it is not entirely clear how long ago those failings occurred, these infractions are serious and problematic. Thus, the fine of £6 million issued by the UKGC along with a warning are unsurprising measures.
Casumo has fully cooperated in the investigation, however, and long before the fine was even issued, the company has been working to improve its processes and policies.
In January 2020, Shelly Suter-Hadad took over as CEO at Casumo and began implementing changes right away, recognising that changes were necessary.
She said: “Since joining Casumo last year, my focus has been on putting in place a new senior leadership team and Personal Management License holders with extremely strong industry experience and the knowledge and expertise to ensure we are a compliance-led business.
“In addition, recognising that key processes fell short in the past, I took immediate action to implement fundamental operational changes so that Casumo is now a gaming group with compliance and responsible gambling at the heart of its business and culture. These efforts, together with our full collaboration, have been formally recognised multiple times by the Commission.”
Indeed, Shelly Suter-Hadad has been specifically recruited for her experience in building gaming groups that lead in compliance, making her ideally suited for the task at hand.
Casumo has always been one of our favourite online casinos and we’re confident that the failings detailed here are indeed a thing of the past.