Star Sports hit with £594,000 fine by Gambling Commission

Britain’s Gambling Commission has issued online bookmaker Star Racing with a £594,000 penalty for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.

The operator, which trades as Star Sports, has also been given an official warning and had conditions added to its licence for failings that occurred between March 2020 and May 2021.

Anti-money laundering failures included having ineffective policies, procedures and controls in place at the time of the compliance assessment, allowing customers to deposit large amounts before obtaining source of funds information, and failing to analyse source of funds information when it was obtained.

Social responsibility failures included not demonstrating an understanding of the impact and effectiveness of customer interactions in terms of the minimisation of customer risk.

As a result, the regulator has imposed a financial penalty of £594,000 under section 121(1) of the Act 2005, and given Star Racing a warning under section 117(1)(a) of the Act.

Attach additional conditions to the licensee’s operating licence under section 117(1)(b) of the Act require Star Racing to conduct risk based due diligence on the third parties it transacts with.