Gamesys hit with £6m fine from Gambling Commission over AML and social responsibility failings

Gamesys has been slapped with a £6m penalty by the Gambling Commission (GC) for historic social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failings.

The failings, which took place between November 2021 and July 2022, were first found by the GC during a compliance assessment of the online casino and bingo operator in May 2022.

The regulator discovered the parent company of brands including Jackpotjoy, Megaways Casino and Bally Casino failed to adhere to three AML requirements and one social responsibility code breach.

AML failings during the corresponding period included allowing some customers to avoid AML threshold checks and continue to spend “significant sums”.

One customer was able to deposit more than £14,000 in a 28-week period while another was able to deposit £34,280 in less than six months.

Additionally, the GC ruled that Gamesys was “conducting inadequate customer due diligence and being over-reliant on third party information”.

The regulator added that this included relying on internet searches, as well as customers’ verbal assurances.

These shortcomings allowed one customer to deposit more than £65,000 in sixth months and another to deposit more than £25,000 in three months.

Gamesys, which is part of Bally’s Corp., was also found to have a “reinvestment of winnings policy” which was deemed “insufficient” to manage risk.

In terms of social responsibility failings, the GC found that interaction records and rationale behind decisions were not always recorded in sufficient detail.

The regulator also established that the group failed to not always interact with customers who may be experiencing gambling-related harm.

Examples of this failing include only interacting with one customer once they had lost almost £10,000.

As part of the intervention, which was dubbed a “responsible gambling interaction”, the recommendation of new games and promotions were put forward to the customer.

In another case, Gamesys only carried out one responsible gambling interaction with a customer after they lost £19,709 in five months.

The GC add that Gamesys had also failed to not always identify those customers which may be suffering from gambling-related harm.

The regulator found there was a deposit limit system which did not identify risks of harm quickly enough.

That system led to one customer depositing £8,255 within three days of opening an account, with no risks identified, and another customer who lost £17,842 within 34 days of opening their account.

The fine, which includes a divestment of £165,042, was coupled with a warning from the GC over Gamesys’ future actions.

The GC said Gamesys had co-operated with the regulator throughout the process and that the firm has now taken corrective action.

Gamesys will have to undergo a third-party audit to ensure the operator is effectively implementing these AML and safer gambling procedures.

Kay Roberts, GC executive director of operations, said: “Our focus as a regulator is to ensure that operators are employing policies and procedures which make gambling fair, safe and crime-free.

“We take this responsibility extremely seriously and whenever we find failures in policies and procedures then the business can expect significant regulatory action.”