An investigation from the Gambling Commission has revealed social responsibility and money laundering failures by Greentube Alderney.
The online gambling business, which operates admiralcasino.co.uk and bellfruitcasino.com, was fined £685,000 ($912,378) after an investigation uncovered failures that occurred between December 2019 and November 2020.
Among the failures, the Commission mentioned the operator had failed to interact with customers in a way that minimises the risk of customers experiencing gambling harms, and also failed to alert the Commission to an event that could have a significant impact on the nature or structure of a licensee’s business.
The investigation also revealed the operator didn’t conduct adequate assessments of money laundering risks, nor did it have in place or implement policies, procedures and controls to prevent money laundering.
Helen Venn, Commission Executive Director, said: “Compliance with Commission rules aimed at keeping people safe and gambling crime-free 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.”
Greentube has accepted that its policies failed to make proper provision for monitoring money laundering risks during out-of-hours; and admitted that its record-keeping processes in place at the time of the Commission’s investigation were not adequate and it was not always able to provide clear evidence of an audit trail to demonstrate decision making.
The operator also admitted it did not carry out the source of wealth or source of funds immediately after identification of a politically exposed person, and instead carried out such checks only after the person in question had hit a £1,000 deposit threshold, which is contrary to regulation.
In addition to the fine, the operator also has to pay £8,789.86 towards the Commission’s costs of investigating the case.
