The UK Gambling Commission has revoked the operating licence of Silverbond Enterprises, the company that runs Park Lane Club in Mayfair.
The UK Gambling Commission has revoked the operating licence of Silverbond Enterprises, which runs Park Lane Club in Mayfair, London after a change in ownership.
Silverbond’s licence is set to be revoked on 18 November, however, Silverbond may appeal the decision.
Commission revokes Silverbond’s licence
While the UK regulatory body did not name the new owner of the business, it did say they were unable to provide adequate proof of the source of funds used to acquire Silverbond.
The Commission added that the business has a track record of providing insufficient information.
The regulator revoked the licence under section 102(4)(b) of the Gambling Act 2005. Under Section 102 of the law, if a person becomes a controller of a licence holder, the company must inform the Commission and either surrender the licence or apply for a determination that the operating licence shall continue to have an effect.
From this point on, the regulator must determine if it would have granted the operating licence to the licensee had the new controller been in place when applying. If the regulator decides it would not have issued the licence, then under section 102(4)(b) the Commission should revoke the licence.
Helen Venn, executive director of the Gambling Commission, said: “We revoked this licence because we are not satisfied as to the source of funds (SOF) used to acquire and support the licensee at the time of the change of corporate control or to whom future profits of the licensee would be paid.
“We also identified concerns with the suitability of the new controller because of its unsatisfactory history in providing information requested as part of our enquiries.”
Another challenge for Silverbond
This ruling marks the latest in a long line of regulatory challenges for Silverbond.
In 2016, the Commission began its review of the company’s licence which resulted in the regulator imposing additional licence conditions to address the company’s money laundering failures.
Then in 2018, the Commission carried out another investigation into the company and discovered that several of Park Lane’s top 250 customers did not receive enhanced due diligence checks. This led to the regulator hitting the operator with a £1.8m fine in September last year.
