Three nation-wide casino operators are to pay £5 million after a
Gambling Commission investigation revealed anti-money laundering
and social responsibility failures.
Rank Group PLC owned operators Grosvenor Casinos Limited,
Grosvenor Casinos (GC) Limited and Gaming Group Limited - who run
51 casinos across Great Britain - will also undergo a third-party
audit to ensure they are effectively implementing anti-money
laundering and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML) failures included:
- not updating its AML policies to take account of changes to
the Money Laundering Regulations in 2020
- implementing AML policies, procedures and controls which
allowed inconsistent decisions to be applied to customers with
elevated money laundering risk
- implementing unclear policies, procedures and controls which
resulted in inappropriate risk levels being ascribed to high-risk
customers and high-risk sources of funds being used by customers
without appropriate scrutiny
- not carrying out enhanced customer due diligence checks when
its own policies required it.
Social responsibility failures included:
- not carrying out safer gambling interactions with a customer
during a period in which they lost £50,000
- not having a record of any safer gambling interactions with a
customer who won approximately £260,000 in a short period and
then lost around £250,000 in 12 days
- not carrying out safer gambling interactions with a customer,
who was returning after a period of self-exclusion, until they
had lost £25,000.
All £5 million of the settlement will be directed to the
Government's Consolidated Fund.
Sue Young, Commission Executive Director of Operations, said:
"Larger enforcement cases are often associated with online
gambling but, as today's announcement shows, the risks of
anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures are
equally alive in the land-based sector.
We would advise all premises-based operators to take a careful
look at this case and ensure their own business is not making the
same mistakes, and therefore they do not face costly and
inevitable Commission action.
Read full Grosvenor Casinos Limited
Public Statement
