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William Hill Group has agreed to pay PS19.2 Million for social responsibility and anti money laundering failures at three gambling companies.
WHG (International) Limited is the company behind williamhill. Mr Green Limited, who runs mrgreen, will pay PS12.5 millions to com. com will pay PS3.7million, and William Hill Organization Limited will pay PS3million. This company operates 1,344 gambling venues across Britain.
Andrew Rhodes, Gambling Commissioner chief executive said that “When we launched the investigation, the failings we discovered were so widespread and alarming serious thought was given to suspending our licences.
“But, as the operator quickly recognized their shortcomings and worked with us in rapid implementation improvements, we instead chose for the largest enforcement payout in our history.”
This action comes just one week after the Commission fined two Kindred Group plc operators a combined PS7.2million. It is the largest enforcement case that the regulator has ever taken on. Entain was the previous victim of a PS17 million enforcement action in August 2013.
Since 2022, 26 enforcement cases have been filed by the Commission. Operators have paid more than PS76 million due to regulatory failures.
Rhodes stated that “in the past 15 months, we have taken unprecedented actions against gambling operators, but now we are starting to see signs for improvement. There are signs that the industry is taking more steps to make gambling safer, and reduce the risk of criminal funds entering their business.
“Operators use algorithms to spot gambling harms and criminal risk faster, interact with consumers sooner and have more effective policies and procedures in effect.”
William Hill business owners are guilty of social responsibility failures, including:
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Insufficient controls to protect new customers and to properly consider high velocity play and length of play, the customer could have been at risk of significant losses within a short time.
- One customer was allowed, in less than 20 minutes, to open a new account and make a purchase of PS23,000 without any checks.
- Another customer was allowed opening an account and spending PS18,000 within 24 hours, without any checks.
- A third customer was also allowed to open a new account, spend PS32,500 in two days without any checks. (Mr Green)
- One customer lost PS14.902 within 70 minutes after failing to identify customers who could be at risk from gambling-related harm. (Mr Green)
- One customer lost PS54.252 after the operator failed to intervene or identify danger of harm earlier than necessary. This was without the operator requesting income evidence, performing adequate checks or using any other effective method of identifying risk of harm. (WHG (International) Limited)
- Insufficient controls exposed customers, new and returning, to substantial losses within a short time. One customer opened an account and lost PS11,000. Another customer didn’t have any telephone contact until the losses reached PS45.800. (WHG (International) Limited)
- One customer, whose credit limit was set at PS70,000, was permitted to place a PS100,000. However, he failed to allow a 24-hour delay between the time he received a request to increase his credit limit and when it was granted. (WHG (International) Limited)
- Despite having been expelled from Mr Green, ineffective controls allowed 331 customers gamble with WHG International Limited. (WHG (International) Limited)
- Inability to recognize changes in customer behavior that should have prompted consideration of whether the customer was suffering harm – a safer gaming interaction was only conducted after he had placed an PS18,000 wager (William Hill Organisation Ltd, WH Retail).
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Insufficient controls to protect new customers and to properly consider high velocity play and length of play, the customer could have been at risk of significant losses within a short time.
- The operator allowed one customer, who lost PS10,600 within two days of the Covid pandemic lockdown, to withdraw the money from its retail premises. This was without any safer gambling interactions.
- Despite being unidentified and placing PS42,253 over 130 bets in a 3-day period, staff didn’t identify any customers as at risk of gambling harms or engage in customer interactions. (William Hill Organisation Ltd. (WH Retail).)
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Insufficient controls to protect new customers and to properly consider high velocity play and length of play, the customer could have been at risk of significant losses within a short time.
Anti-money laundering (AML) failures include:
- Customers were allowed to deposit large amounts of money without performing appropriate checks. One customer could spend and lose PS70134 in a month, another lost PS38,000 over five weeks, and yet another lost PS36,000 in just four days. (WHG (International) Limited)
- Customers can deposit large amounts of money without having to conduct checks. One customer made deposits of PS73,535 but lost PS14.068 within four months (Mr Green).
- Customers were allowed to stake large sums of money without being closely monitored or scrutinised. The operator did not request Source of Funds evidence from one customer who staked PS39.324 and lost PS20.360 in 12 days. It also did not get documentation from another customer who staked PS276,942 but lost PS24.395 over two years. (William Hill Organisation Ltd. (WH Retail).)
- There was no guidance in policies, procedures and controls about what to do following customer profiling results and how to use them to achieve the desired outcome. (WHG (International) Limited) & (Mr Green)
- There were no hard stops to stop further spending or mitigate against money laundering risks. This was before customer risk profiling is complete. (WHG (International) Limited) & (Mr Green)
- AML staff training did not provide sufficient information about risks and how they can be managed (WHG (International) Limited) et (Mr Green)
All PS19.2 millions will be used to support socially responsible activities as part of the regulatory settlement.
To ensure that a business board member oversees an Improvement Plan, additional licence conditions will be placed. Additionally, the company will undergo a third-party audit in order to determine if it is successfully implementing its AML/safer gambling policies, procedures, and controls.
