Settlement relates to ineffective AML and social responsibility controls at Grosvenor

Rank Group will pay a penalty of £5 million to the Gambling Commission of Great Britain for failing to maintain effective anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls.

The settlement announced this morning relates to Rank Group’s Grosvenor Casino business, which operates 51 casinos in Great Britain.

According to the Gambling Commission, Rank Group failed to maintain adequate anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility controls within the Grosvenor business, leading to customers being able to gamble significant sums of money without being subject to source of funds checks, or responsible gambling interactions.

The Commission found that Rank had not updated its AML policies to take account of changes to the Money Laundering Regulations in 2020, and that the policies, procedures and controls which were implemented allowed inconsistent decisions to be applied to customers with elevated money laundering risk.

The Commission also found that Rank failed to conduct enhanced customer due diligence checks when its own policies required it do so.

“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,” said Sue Young, Gambling Commission executive director of operations.

“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.”

The issues identified by the Commission included failing to carry 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; and not carrying out safer gambling interactions with a customer, who was returning from self-exclusion, until they had lost £25,000.

All £5 million of the regulatory settlement will be directed to the UK Government’s Consolidated Fund. Grosvenor Casinos has also agreed to conduct an independent external audit of its business.

The Commission said that Rank Group was cooperative throughout the investigation and swiftly implemented changes to remedy the failings but noted that the operator has previously been issued with formal advice regarding similar areas of concern.

Rank Group disclosed in July that it had made a £5 million provision for a proposed regulatory settlement with the Gambling Commission.

Shares in Rank Group plc. (LSE:RNK) were trading 1.5 per cent lower at 72 pence per share in London Wednesday morning.