Entain-owned BetCity slapped with €3m fine by KSA
Operator has been found to have shortcomings in anti-money laundering and terrorist financing procedures
Entain-owned BetEnt, trading as BetCity, has been fined €3m (£2.6m) by the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) over anti-money laundering and terrorist financing failures.
The regulator first approached BetCity in September 2022 after customer data logs suggested the operator was not instigating source of funds checks for players with large losses.
In delivering a statement to the operator in September 2022, the KSA implored the firm to tighten it transaction monitoring and initiate source of funds checks for players with high losses sooner.
In its subsequent investigation, the KSA found that 28 out of 30 customer reports showed BetCity had not “sufficiently conducted customer investigations” while out of the seven completed investigations, four were not reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
Additionally, the regulator suggested BetCity was not capable of being able to continuously monitor customer relationships, meaning that customer due diligence was “not demonstrably tailored to the risk sensitivity of money laundering”.
The KSA also noted there had been cases where transactions were assessed “too late” or information had not been requested or obtained to verify source of funds.
Elsewhere, the KSA claimed BetCity had failed to report 53 transactions with the FIU, once again contravening the Netherlands Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prevention Act (WWFT).
In retort the to claims from the KSA, BetCity said it had complied with WWFT requirements, citing a backlog of customers as to why checks had not been thoroughly completed.
BetCity also said that it had taken several measures to comply with the instructions issued in September 2022, but the regulator still found that these measures were insufficient to comply with the rules.
BetCity also argued the WWFT is unclear in places and that further guidance was needed. However, the KSA said that the operator was responsible for taking measures to manage risks without guidance from the law or regulator.
René Jansen, KSA chair, commented: “In May last year, the KSA issued a broad warning to licensed providers that they had to quickly get their WWFT affairs in order.
“We then indicated that if research shows that providers are underperforming in the field of the WWFT, sanctions will be imposed. We have now moved beyond the startup phase of the market, which means that there are no longer any excuses for certain shortcomings.”