The Independent reported that the U.K. gambling regulator fined William Hill £19.2 million for social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failures at three of its gaming businesses.
This is a record fine levied by the Gambling Commission (UKGC)—the previous record fine was £17 million against Entain last summer.
A smaller fine of £7.1 million (€8.0 million/$8.8 million) was levied on the Kindred Group-owned 32Red and Platinum Gaming for several social responsibility and AML failures.
Regarding William Hill, in one instance a patron was allowed to open a new account and spend £23,000 in 20 minutes. In the second instance, a customer spent £18,000 in 24 hours.
Add to that failures to apply AML standards, failures that allowed patrons to deposit large amounts of cash without triggering checks on the source of the money. One customer spent and lost £70,134 in the course of a month, and others lost £38,000 in five weeks and £36,000 in four days, respectively.
WHG (International) Ltd, the umbrella group that controls William Hill, will pay £12.5 million. Mr. Green Ltd will pay £3.7 million. William Hill Organization Ltd, the operator of 1,344 gaming businesses throughout the U.K., will pay £3 million.
According to The Independent, UKGC CEO Andrew Rhodes considered suspending William Hill’s license. He said, “However, because the operator immediately recognized their failings and worked with us to swiftly implement improvements, we instead opted for the largest enforcement payment in our history.”
Last year, the gaming company 888 bought William Hill’s stores for £150 million. Later it paid £2 billion for William Hill’s international assets that included more than a thousand betting shops in the U.K. A spokesman for 888 told The Independent that the fine related to the former owners: “After William Hill was acquired, the company quickly addressed the identified issues with the implementation of a rigorous action plan.” He added, “The entire group shares the Gambling Commission’s commitment to improve compliance standards across the industry and we will continue to work collaboratively with the regulator and other stakeholders to achieve this.”
The regulator said it would earmark the £19.2 million towards “socially responsible purposes.”
In the case of the Kindred fine, its subsidiary 32Red, will pay £4.2 million and Platinum Gaming, which operates Unibet in the U.K. must pay £2.9 million. The commission gave as an example a 32Red customer who spent so much time playing that it should have prompted earlier identification. It noted that one customer deposited £43,000 and lost £36,000 within a week.
The fine followed an investigation by the UKGC of 32Red between June 2020 and March 2021 and of Unibet between July 2021 and October 2022.
In the case of Platinum Gaming, the commission said it failed to have effective policies and procedures that could identify multiple accounts held by the same person. It noted that several self-excluded or blocked customers were about to register again. It said the company’s policies were not protecting problem gamblers and that SOF (source of fund) requests did not result in customers being restricted from depositing and gambling.
The commission also said Kindred failed to fully implement policies as set out in the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds regulations.
Commission Executive Director Kay Roberts commented, “These failures highlight clearly that both operators failed to interact with customers in a way which minimizes the risk of them experiencing harms associated with gambling.” Additionally, “Inappropriate controls allowed significant levels of gambling to take place within a short space of time without the operator knowing anything about customers’ financial situations.”
Kindred Group CEO Henrik Tjärnström commented on the fine, “While we accept the outcome, and the acknowledgment that we have already taken significant steps to strengthen our processes, we also recognize that we need to work even harder to ensure a safe and compliant business.”
