The online casino brand Mr Green has been fined for regulatory failings in the UK.
The William Hill owned online casino brand Mr Green has been fined £3m by the UK Gambling Commission after breaching rules and regulations over preventing gambling harm and money laundering in the UK.
For failing to have effective procedures to prevent harm and money laundering, the operator will pay £3m to the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms. Mr Green must also cover the Commission’s £10,349.77 costs.
This news comes after Mr Green told its UK affiliate partners to halt all promotion of its online casino brand earlier this month.
What did Mr Green do?
The commission carried out a compliance assessment of the operator in July 2018, prior to its acquisition by William Hill in January 2019. As part of the assessment, three customer accounts were examined.
According to the Commission’s report, Mr Green did not carry out social responsibility interaction with a user who won £50,000, gambled it away and then deposited thousands more.
Mr Green also accepted ten-year-old evidence of a £176,000 claims payout as “satisfactory evidence” of source of funds for a customer who had deposited more than £1m and accepted a photo of a laptop screen showing currency in dollars on an alleged crypto trading account as an adequate source of funds.
Richard Watson, Gambling Commission Executive Director, said: “Our investigation uncovered systemic failings in respect of both Mr Green’s social responsibility and AML controls which affected a significant number of customers across its online casinos.
“Consumers in Britain have the right to know that there are checks and balances in place which will help keep them safe and ensure gambling is crime-free – and we will continue to crack down on operators who fail in this area.”
Mr Green has acknowledged that between November 2014 and November 2018 that it did not have adequate or effective anti-money laundering measures in place. The operator has also said that it will conduct a compliance assessment of an additional 130 customer accounts.
Other companies caught in the Commissions probe
Mr Green is now the ninth business to receive a penalty as part of a Gambling Commission probe that has resulted in more than £20m in penalties since 2018. Since the regulator launched its probe, six operators have lost their licence to operate in the UK and can no longer offer gambling activities in the country.
Over the course of the investigations into the nine most serious cases, the Commission assessed the actions of 22 individual personal management licence holders. Of these 22, six gave up their licence, six received a formal warning, one licence holder received advice to conduct, seven are still ongoing and two receive no further action.
