Dishonest Dealings Unveiled: Gambling Giants in Hot Water
UK Gaming Commission Imposes £1.4m Penalty on Aspire Global, While Unibet Faces a Record €800k Penalty in France
Regulators in Europe have been keeping busy these days, slapping heavy fines on significant players in the gambling industry. The UK and French authorities have both taken action against big-name operators, sending a strong message to the industry.
Aspire Global Gets Slapped with a Hefty Fine
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has fined AG Communications Limited a whopping £1.4 million ($1.7 million) due to several Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and social responsibility breaches. The company operates 58 white-label platforms under the Aspire Global brand, including popular sites like Karamba and CasiPlay. The hefty fine will be channeled towards social responsibility initiatives.
John Pearce, the UKGC Director of Enforcement, commented on the size of the penalty, stating that it "serves as a stark reminder" to other operators to ensure their systems comply with the regulations.
Rinsing and Repeating
Social responsibility and AML failures are a consistent problem in the UK market, and the regulators crack down hard to safeguard players. The UKGC pointed out some instances where AG Communications fell short in particular.
The company lacked adequate measures to restrict users from wagering large sums of money in brief periods. In one case, a user lost £6,000 ($7,247) in just 48 hours, with the only interaction from the operator being a telephone call when the user exceeded the £5,000 ($6,039) daily loss restriction.
The regulator also discovered significant delays in conducting checks when certain thresholds were hit. In one instance, an account was only reviewed eight days after being flagged for manual review due to hitting a specific financial threshold.
A French Twist
In France, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) levied an €800,000 ($845,156) fine on Kindred Group's SBS Betting subsidiary, which operates Unibet in the country. The fine stems from a technical issue that prevented users from self-excluding on iOS devices from March 2021 to December 2022, before another glitch occurred. This is the largest fine the ANJ has ever handed out.
The ANJ approximated that about 6,754 users couldn't self-exclude during the period. Recall that, per French law, operators must provide self-exclusion options ranging from 24 hours to 12 months.
The size of the fine was influenced by the issue's persistence. As a result, the Unibet website in France must display a notice highlighting the problem on the front page of its apps from March 17-31.
Enrichment Insight: AG Communications Limited's previous infractions, as reported in November 2022, involve breaches of paragraphs 1 and 2 of license condition 12.1.1, which relate to AML obligations. The company was fined £237,600 and issued a formal warning. They were required to implement additional due diligence checks on third-party entities they conduct business with.
- The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) issued a formal warning and fined Aspire Global's subsidiary AG Communications Limited for breaches relating to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) obligations, as highlighted in November 2022.
- The Aspire Global brand operates several white-label platforms, one of which is CasiPlay, and the fine will be used for social responsibility initiatives.
- The Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) in France fined Kindred Group's SBS Betting subsidiary, which operates Unibet, a record €800,000 due to a technical issue that prevented users from self-excluding on iOS devices between March 2021 and December 2022.
- In the casino-and-gambling business, regulators are issuing warnings and imposing heavy fines, emphasizing the need for operators to adhere to strict AML regulations and prioritize social responsibility.
