QuinnBet agrees to pay £609,000 in UKGC settlement

QuinnBet has settled with the Gambling Commission a £609,104 sanction after social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.The commission also highlighted deposit limits, indicators of gambling harm, and light-touch vulnerability checks during their investigation.Specific anti-money laundering failures were over-reliance on source of wealth checks, with the commission finding there had been assumptions that winnings were being “recycled”.The Commission’s director of enforcement John Pierce said: “This case highlights the serious consequences of relying on systems and controls that are unable to identify and respond to indicators of harm and financial crime quickly enough.“We expect operators to ensure their safeguards are effective in practice to protect consumers and keep crime out of gambling.”Further failures included “ineffective controls” which meant that signs of potential problem gambling such as high deposits, increasing stakes, and high turnover were not captured for manual review. Read MoreOne example saw a player place approximately 4,800 bets in one day, before staking a further 7,000 the next day - without being flagged.In terms of financial vulnerability checks failures, the commission flagged that QuinnBett’s migration to a new platform led to an error which allowed some customers to bet more than they should have been allowed to.The regulator said: “When the checks were run it was established that although most would have passed the check, 41 customers would have failed and 136 would have required account restrictions.“The failure meant that some customers spent more than they should have been permitted to.”Pierce also added: “In this case, the operator recognised the issues and took immediate action to make significant improvements to its systems and controls.“This included strengthening their AML policies and procedures and improving how they identify and respond to indicators of harm.“We expect operators to learn from this case and read the public statement to ensure that they do not make the same mistakes. Our key focus is on ensuring that operators meet the standards we expect and, where they fall short, we will take regulatory action where necessary.”