Britain’s Gambling Commission has fined online gaming operator InTouch Games £3.4m for social responsibility, money laundering and marketing failures.
The operator of UK-focused brands such as mrspin.co.uk, pocketwin.co.uk and slotfactory.com was found to have breached social responsibility, money laundering and marketing regulations by failing to interact with players who showed signs of problem gambling behaviour.
The operator also allowed customers to deposit funds using payment providers who facilitate cryptocurrency transactions, which posed a risk of money laundering, and also failed to provide fair and transparent terms to customers regarding bonus offers.
Commenting on the decision, Gambling Commission executive director Richard Watson said: “Through our challenging compliance and enforcement activity we will continue our work to raise standards in the industry and continue to hold failing operators to account.”
The Gambling Commission review identified the following failures:
• breach of paragraph 1 and 3 of licence condition 12.1.1. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) – Prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing
• breach of paragraph 1 and 2 of Licence Condition 7.1.1 (Fair and transparent terms and practices)
• failure to comply with paragraph 1 of social responsibility code provision (SRCP) 3.1.1 (Combating problem gambling)
• failure to comply with paragraph 1(e) of SRCP 3.4.1 (Customer Interaction)
• failure to comply with paragraphs 1 and 2 of SRCP 5.1.9 (Other marketing requirements)
• failure to act in accordance with the principles of Ordinary code provision (OCP) 2.1.1 (Anti-money laundering)
In addition to the £3.4m fine, InTouch Games has also had a new condition attached to its license, requiring the operator to appoint an independent auditor to ensure full compliance with the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice.