Spreadex to pay £1.4m as result of Gambling Commission investigation
Spreadex Limited will pay £1.4m ($1.6m) after an investigation in the UK led by the Gambling Commission revealed social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.
As part of the settlement with the Commission, the operator is to pay the money to socially responsible causes.
Among the social responsibility failures, the Gambling Commission mentioned ineffective financial alerts that allowed customers to lose significant amounts over a short period of time, and the lack of sufficiency in recording and evaluating customer interactions.
Additionally, one customer was able to deposit £1.7m and lose £500,000 during the course of one single month. According to the Commission, although customer interactions had taken place, they had not been sufficiently evaluated and the restricting of the account has not been considered.
In terms of anti-money laundering failures, there was a customer who met a £25,000 financial deposit alert yet was allowed to increase the alert for further review to £100,000, based solely on a self-declaration of income and an open-course check.
Another customer was able to deposit £365,000 and lose £284,000 within three months, without a source of funding being sufficiently established.
Yet another customer was allowed to continue depositing funds after having provided redacted bank statements as a source of funds.
Leanne Oxley, Gambling Commission Director of Enforcement and Intelligence, said: “While it is disappointing to see anti-money laundering and social responsibility breaches occur despite our extensive published cases highlighting similar failures, we note the swift and robust action the licensee took to bring itself back to compliance.
“We expect similar commitment and engagement across the gambling sector.”
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