Multiple compliance failures
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has ordered Novamatic subsidiary Greentube Alderney Limited to pay a £685,000 ($912,180) penalty, citing social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.
The UK gambling watchdog took to Twitter December 2 to share news of its regulatory action against the Vienna-headquartered global iGaming service provider:
The ruling comes on the back of an investigation the UKGC launched December 2020. The Commission’s probe discovered that Greentube subsidiaries Admiralcasino.co.uk and Bellfruitcasino.com had failings in money laundering and player protection safeguards.
According to the UKGC’s report, between December 2019 and November 2020, Greentube fell foul of complying with multiple Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) requirements set by the watchdog. For this, the Commission has ordered Greentube to undergo an extensive third-party audit.
Source of wealth checks lax
In a press release Thursday, the UKGC said the gaming service provider had, under the strictures of the LCCP, failed to comply with “money laundering procedures, transfer of funds, record keeping, and ensuring safe interaction with customers.”
politically exposed person […] was able to gamble up to a £1,000 deposit limit”
Under Greentube’s anti-money laundering failings, the UKGC flagged an occasion in which a “politically exposed person […] was able to gamble up to a £1,000 ($1331.65) deposit limit before source of wealth checks were carried out.” This is a requirement under Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
In addition, the UKGC said Greentube had neglected to submit six suspicious activity reports (SARs) to the National Crime Agency. The submission of SARS is a requirement stipulated by the UK’s Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and Terrorism Act 2000.
The regulatory body also stated that Admiralcasino.co.uk and Bellfruitcasino.com did not meet multiple social responsibility code provisions, which are intended to identify individuals experiencing gambling harms and trigger customer care interventions.
Compliance “not optional”
The UKGC also published Greentube’s public statement. Among several acknowledgements, Greentube accepted that its customer interactions were “overly reliant on its £1,000 30-day net loss threshold to identify potential signs of problematic gambling.”
The UKGC’s executive director Helen Venn didn’t mince her words, saying compliance with Commission rules in order to keep gambling free of crime “is not optional.”
“We will always take firm action against those operators who fail to meet the high standards we expect for consumers in Britain,” Venn warned.