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Greentube Alderney Limited will pay £1m as part of its regulatory settlement with the UK Gambling Commission after an investigation revealed a raft of social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failures.
The online gambling business that runs admiralcasino.co.uk will pay the money towards “socially responsible causes”, according to the Gambling Commission statement published on January 9.
Among its social responsibility failures include not fully implementing a range of policies such as ensuring customer limits are based on a regular income, checking identity documents are real, its controls to identify vulnerable customers or potential harm in a timely manner.
“One customer used a bank statement as proof of address that had a negative opening and closing balance and included numerous transactions to another gambling operator, but the information was not reviewed or escalated until the customer had deposited £4,000 over four months,” according to the Gambling Commission’s statement.
The operator also incurred a list of AML failures, including mistakes that caused delays in identifying and potential escalation of money laundering and/or terrorist financing risks.
The operator also failed to follow “consistently” its “risky occupations” policy, in one instance failing to identify a "finance manager" who had access to funds that could be misappropriated and laundered. No steps were taken to mitigate the increased risk.
Greentube has faced regulatory action before, paying out £685,000 in 2021, also for social responsibility and AML failures.
John Pierce, the Gambling Commission’s director of enforcement, said the failures were revealed during a follow-up compliance assessment to check if the operator had “continued to apply lessons learned from previous regulatory action”.
"While we noted that the business had made significant general improvements, further regulatory breaches were still identified. The operator was subsequently required to swiftly put in place an effective action plan designed to remedy all of the identified failings,” Pierce said.
He reminded other operators to ensure their businesses are safe and free from crime as breaching rules for the second time will lead to “increasingly stringent enforcement action”.
“Any failure to uphold anti-money laundering standards is unacceptable, and today’s action reflects the gravity of the breaches identified. We will continue to monitor this operator to ensure they consistently meet the required regulatory standards,” Pierce said.
