In the United Kingdom and the Gambling Commission regulator has ordered online casino operator Daub Alderney Limited to pay a £5.85 million ($8.06 million) fine for breaches of its social responsibility and anti-money laundering procedures.
Daub Alderney Limited was purchased by British land-based gaming behemoth Rank Group in October of 2019 as part of an arrangement worth approximately £115 million ($158 million) and is now responsible for a plethora of iGaming domains including the likes of SpinAndWin.com, KittyBingo.com, RegalWins.com, Aspers.com, LuckyVIP.com, MagicalVegas.com and LuckyPantsBingo.com.
Historical infractions:
The Gambling Commission used an official press release to proclaim that the operator has also been issued with a ‘formal warning’ regarding the infractions, which it detailed had occurred between January of 2019 and March of 2020. The watchdog moreover declared that Daub Alderney Limited faced ‘the full consequences of regulatory failures’ even though some of its breaches had occurred before the takeover by London-listed Rank Group.
Essential obligation:
Regarding the social responsibility failings attributed to Daud Alderney Limited and the regulator asserted that the operator had neglected ‘to put into effect policies and procedures’ for the timely identification of problem gambling via interaction with customers. As such and the watchdog detailed that one player had been allowed to lose £43,410 ($59,814) in only four months while utilizing four separate payment cards and reversing requested withdrawals worth £133,873 ($184,455).
Money matters:
The Gambling Commission furthermore explained that Daub Alderney Limited had violated its anti-money laundering safeguards by adopting ‘inappropriate policies, procedures and controls’ that had allowed one punter to amass £50,000 ($68,870) in deposits without having to supply adequate source of funds evidence. It acknowledged that a second player had similarly been permitted to stow £41,500 ($57,150) in just a month without providing suitable analogous proof while a third had lost £53,000 ($73,000) over an eight-month period with the only obtained source of funds evidence being that he had lived in a house worth in the region of £233,000 ($320,900).
Fragile praise:
Helen Venn serves as the Executive Director for the Gambling Commission and she stated that the investigation of Daud Alderney Limited was part of ‘planned compliance activity’ and warned all United Kingdom-licensed iGaming operators that her organization intends to ‘continue to take firm action against those who fail to raise standards’. However, she pronounced that ‘a good proportion’ of the cited failures had occurred before Rank Group had taken full control and ‘that there had been improvements since acquisition’.
Read a statement from Venn…
“The licensee’s culpability and the requisite penalty reflecting that culpability cannot be affected by the fact that its shares have now passed from one set of investors to another. The licensee does not escape or mitigate the consequences of its actions because its shares are sold.”