888 fined £9.4 million by UK Gambling Commission

The UK Gambling Commission have imposed a fine of £9.4 million on 888 UK Limited who are the subsidiary of leading online casino and sportsbook operator 888 Holdings Limited.

They gave 888 the fine after several social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings. The UK Gambling Commission have been getting tough in recent months with several fines being given to companies.

It comes at a time when the UK government are looking at ways of amending the 2005 Gambling Act. There continues to be concerns about the number of people that are having problems with their gambling.

As the Covid-19 pandemic saw an increasing number of people turning to online gambling, especially casino games. The UK Gambling Commission advised online gambling operators to continue to treat their customers with care. This included looking for customers who were suddenly playing a wider variety of games and spending a lot more than they used to.

For example, a player who used to just play slots and blackjack at an online casino, suddenly also playing baccarat, poker and visiting the live casino on the site. If you want to be playing online, it’s good to look for some of these casino offers.

The chief executive of the UK Gambling Commission is Andrew Rhodes. He stressed that further failings by 888 could see them “seriously consider the suitability of the operator” to perform the responsibilities that they have a licensee.

One problem area was social responsibility. Gambling companies need to realise if any of their customers may be developing a gambling problem or already had one. The UK Gambling Commission were concerned that 888 only carried out affordability checks when deposits had reached a total of £40,000.

One gambler who lost £37,000 in just six weeks. Another saw an NHS worker who was on a wage of £1,400 a month, be allowed to set a monthly deposit cap of £1,300. The UK Gambling Commission were rightly concerned over a deposit cap that was virtually the full amount the customer was earning.

The way in which 888 interacted with their customers was also unsatisfactory. An email would be sent out to a site member that informed them of the responsible gambling tools that could be used. They did not require a response from the gambler though.

Also, the UK Gambling Commission found that if 888 did have concerns over a possible gambling problem, no restrictions were then placed on accounts. One case saw a single customer holding 11 different 888 accounts.

One did have restrictions placed on it as there were concerns over the source of funds. No action was taken regards the other 10 held and then three more accounts were opened by the customer who must have been very eager to play casino games.

Another important area is the confirmation of personal income by customers. If they are going to be wagering lots of money on casino games, where is the money coming from? The UK Gambling Commission were unhappy that 888 were willing to accept verbal assurances from customers.

They also failed to give a list of the documents necessary to be sent to them. One customer gambled £65,835 in the space of five months but there were no checks on the source of funds made by 888.

The company had a policy stating that customers would have 10 days to produce evidence of source of funds. If this didn’t happen, then restrictions would be placed on their account. However, this policy was not, say the UK Gambling Commission, carried out effectively. One customer didn’t receive a request for documentation until three weeks after the ten-day limit. In those three weeks, the customer incurred further losses of £15,000.

The UK Gambling Commission have now added additional conditions to the license that 888 hold. A third-party audit will be required within 12 months of the review into their behaviour. This will have the job of seeing if 888 have been effectively implementing their policies re social responsibility and anti-money laundering and other controls.

In 2017, 888 were fined £7.8 million by the UK Gambling Commission. On that occasion they had been failing vulnerable customers.

This latest fine has been accepted by 888. They say that since the compliance assessment ended in October 2020, there had been “immediate and appropriate” action taken. These have the aim of improving internal policies and procedures.

Chief Executive Officer of 888, Itai Panzer said that the company deeply regrets the “unpleasant” fine placed on them by the UK Gambling Commission. He commented: “I am personally committed to continue investing in this ongoing effort, and doing whatever it takes, to bring us back to the highest standards of the industry, which is a natural place for us and a place that we can be proud of again.”