Greentube Alderney Ltd has received the UK Gambling Commission‘s first regulatory penalty of the new year after having failed to meet AML and social responsibility regulatory standards.
Greentube is the operating company of Admiral Casino, an online and retail slot games operator which is a familiar face across many UK high-streets. The UKGC opted to charge the firm £1m, with the funds due to be distributed to social responsibility causes.
The company’s AML failures occurred between September 2022 and June 2023 and saw a lack of scrutiny of available information upon receipt leading to delays in the identification and potential escalation of money laundering or terrorism financing risks.
The UKGC also asserts that Greentube failed to follow its own policy around ‘risky occupations’, such as not considering a customer’s job as a ‘finance manager’, who the regulator states could have access to misappropriated or laundered funds, in their profile.
Lastly, Greentube was found to not always fully investigate and escalate accounts showing apparent links to other accounts quickly enough. The Commission gave an example of an account featuring the same address and surname as another Admiral customer who had convictions for supplying class A drugs, which was not investigated by Greentube.
John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, said: “This case arose from a follow-up compliance assessment designed to ensure 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.”
This is the second time Greentube has faced a regulatory penalty, having been charged £685,000 in 2021 for AML and social responsibility failures. Against a backdrop of regulatory change, primarily the review of the 2005 Gambling Act, the UKGC has been active in policing AML and social responsibility standards over the past four years.
Notably, record penalties were levied against Entain and William Hill, two of the UK’s biggest betting and gaming groups with the former owning the Ladbrokes and Coral high-street bookmakers.
Though AML is of course a central theme in these investigations, it is important not to ignore the social responsibility side of things. Affordability has proven a key social responsibility talking point, with paytech playing a role in this as the UKGC envisions Open Banking playing a pivotal role in analysing customer finances.
In Greentube’s case, the UKGC asserts that the firm did not fully implement its own policy, processes and controls in ensuring customer limits are based on sustainable income, ensuring supplied documents are genuine, and identifying indicators of vulnerability or harm.
Pierce continued: “We want to remind all operators that any business found to breach rules designed to keep gambling safe and free from crime for a second time should expect 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.”