QuinnBet (Gibraltar) Limited to pay £609,104 for regulatory failures

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced today that QuinnBet (Gibraltar) Limited, which operates quinnbet.com will pay a £609,104 for Regulatory failures, see below for full statement from the UKGC:

An online gambling business is to pay £609,104 after a Commission investigation revealed anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.

QuinnBet (Gibraltar) Limited – which runs quinnbet.com – will pay the money as part of a settlement with the Commission.

An investigation was launched after a compliance assessment revealed anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.

Social responsibility failures included:

• deploying a manual process which allowed those aged between 18 to 24 to spend over deposit limits the operator had set for this potentially vulnerable group
• ineffective controls meant signs of potential gambling harm such as high deposits, short high velocity sessions, increasing stakes, number of bets and high turnover were not captured and flagged for manual review – in one example one customer was able to place approximately 4,800 bets in one day, and 7,000 the following day without this being identified and flagged
• ineffective controls did not always flag indicators of risk of harm in a timely manner for manual intervention or automated processes – following a large win, one customer’s stakes escalated to the point where over £215,000 was staked in a day with multiple wagers over £5,000 but this was not identified until a report was produced the following day
• not effectively ensuring all customers who met the relevant threshold underwent a light touch financial vulnerability check.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) failures included:

• employing insufficient controls to act in a timely manner to identify and mitigate the risk posed by customers who were displaying disproportionate spend – in one example a customer provided payslips that showed monthly earnings of circa £2,000 yet was able to deposit and lose £9,000 in four days
• allowing some customers to deposit significant funds without the Source of Funds (SoF) being established to evidence that the monies were from a legitimate source
• having insufficient controls to ensure that Suspicious Activity Reports were submitted as soon as practicable after the threshold for suspicion had been met.

John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, said: “This case highlights the serious consequences of relying on systems and controls that are unable to identify and respond to indicators of harm and financial crime quickly enough. We expect operators to ensure their safeguards are effective in practice to protect consumers and keep crime out of gambling.

“In this case, the operator recognised the issues and took immediate action to make significant improvements to its systems and controls. This included strengthening their AML policies and procedures and improving how they identify and respond to indicators of harm.

“We expect operators to learn from this case and read the public statement to ensure that they do not make the same mistakes. Our key focus is on ensuring that operators meet the standards we expect and, where they fall short, we will take regulatory action where necessary.”

UKGC WEBSITE