Kindred sees Gambling Commission compliance assessments escalated to enforcement team
Unibet parent company says GC indicates there are “specific areas of significant concern” over two assessments from January
Kindred Group has seen two compliance assessments from the Gambling Commission (GC) escalated over “specific areas of significant concern”.
The Stockholm-listed operator released its Annual and Sustainability Report 2023 this week, in which it revealed the ongoing investigations by the regulator.
Kindred Group confirmed the business was subject to three compliance assessments by the GC in January as part of an “ongoing supervisory process”.
Since then, the firm said it had received the compliance finding reports from the regulator, of which two of the three assessments will now be escalated to the GC’s enforcement team for further consideration.
The Kindred Group report stated: “For two of the three compliance assessments, the UKGC has indicated that, taking into account the nature of the findings (including specific areas of significant concern), both assessments will be escalated to the enforcement team within the UKGC for them to consider if further investigation is required.”
The Unibet parent company said the final outcome of the investigations was not yet known.
The confirmation of another investigation from the GC comes after Kindred was handed a £7.1m penalty in March 2023 for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings.
Two of the group’s subsidiaries, 32Red Limited and Platinum Gaming (which runs Unibet.com), were found to have shortcomings which led to penalties of £4.2m and £2.9m, respectively.
At the time, the GC ruled that 32Red’s controls were “not effective” as they “failed to identify and protect potential problem gamblers”.
One customer was allowed to deposit £43,000 and lose £36,000 in just seven days.
A Kindred Group spokesperson said: “Kindred will continue to cooperate closely with the UK Gambling Commission as part of the ongoing assessment process.”
The GC has handed out just one regulatory punishment this year in the shape of a £6m fine for Gamesys following a compliance assessment that was carried out in May 2022.