MrQ to pay £690,000 Gambling Commission settlement over multiple licence breaches

Lindar Media, which trades as MrQ, has agreed to pay a £690,947 settlement to the Gambling Commission (GC) after an investigation found failings across a series of licence conditions. 

The breaches relate to a period between July 2021 and September 2022 when the firm was found to have had inadequate standards across multiple aspects of the business, including anti-money laundering, social responsibility and reporting of key events.

Regarding the AML breaches, MrQ was found not to have an appropriate money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment in place, as it did not adequately assess risk relating to customers, means of payment, emerging risks operator control and additional inherent risks. 

The risk assessment did not address risk factors relating to customers in higher-risk countries, customers who are spending disproportionately and when business is conducted in unusual circumstances. 

The regulator also found that when customers signed up to MrQ, all customers were automatically assigned a low money laundering risk rating due to there being “insufficient information” at the start of the customer relationship.

Another instance found that the financial controls put in place allowed one customer to deposit and lose £10,000 in a short period of time. 

It was also discovered that the interaction process at MrQ did not consider the urgency for contact, especially when the operator had little to no information known about a customer.

Elsewhere, the regulator found that while MrQ’s policies had been reviewed, they had not been done so in a timely manner, or frequently as necessary. The policies had also not been signed off by the money laundering reporting officer.

The operator also failed to inform the GC when its head of regulatory compliance left the business in June 2022 and when the GC conducted its review in September 2022, it established the person holding the head of regulatory compliance position also held other roles in the company without the GC’s express approval.

In the penultimate breach listed by the GC, the operator was found to have run ads that could appeal to minors.

In June 2022, the company ran an ad on Reddit featuring three Spiderman cartoon figures pointing at each other. Another ad at the beginning of August 2022 showed imagery related to King Kong cash pots, Piggy Bank Bills and The Doghouse Megaways, which were not behind a restricted gateway. 

The GC said the images were “likely to be of particular appeal to children”. MrQ took immediate action to remove the offending ads when made aware.

Finally, MrQ failed to make an annual contribution in 2021 to support research, prevention and treatment (RET) for those affected by gambling-related harm.

The regulator has said that since the infractions were brought to the operator’s attention, it has taken a number of steps to rectify the breaches. 

The GC added MrQ made early disclosure of all relevant facts, accepted the failures at the earliest opportunity and was fully co-operative during the investigation.

MrQ has agreed to pay a settlement payment of £690,947 instead of a fine, including a divestment of £50,947, with monies directed towards socially responsible causes. 

The operator also agreed to pay the GC’s investigation costs. 

Speaking following the confirmation of the settlement, Lindar Media CEO Savvas Fellas said: “My focus since 2022 has been centred around maturing the day-to-day operations through the development of the senior leadership team.

“We’ve implemented scalable processes that provide consistency as we grow and built technology-driven models that underpin compliance and safer gambling promises to our players; all of which are aligned with our mission of offering progressive, value entertainment – with delight and transparency.”