Novomatic’s Greentube subsidiary in Alderney has agreed to pay £1 million to Britain’s Gambling Commission.
Greentube Alderney will pay the money to socially responsible causes as part of a settlement with the Commission, which follows an investigation into social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures at admiralcasino.co.uk.
The investigation, which was a follow up to previous regulatory action against the company, found ongoing deficiencies in both KYC and AML processes. This meant that the company could not always ensure that documents received from customers were genuine, or that its controls would identify indicators of vulnerability or potential harm in a timely manner.
The company was also found to have not fully investigated and escalated apparently linked accounts in a timely manner, or to have consistently followed its own policy on AML risk assessment.
“This case arose from a follow-up compliance assessment designed to ensure the operator had continued to apply lessons learned from previous regulatory action,” said John Pierce, director of enforcement at the Gambling Commission.
“While we noted that the business had made significant general improvements, further regulatory breaches were still identified. The operator was subsequently required to swiftly put in place an effective action plan designed to remedy all of the identified failings.”
Pierce added: “We want to remind all operators that any business found to breach rules designed to keep gambling safe and free from crime for a second time should expect increasingly stringent enforcement action. Any failure to uphold anti-money laundering standards is unacceptable, and today’s action reflects the gravity of the breaches identified.
“We will continue to monitor this operator to ensure they consistently meet the required regulatory standards.”