Kindred to pay £1.6m over AML and gambling harm failures
Operator found to have allowed a convicted fraudster to gamble £629,420 via its online casino back in 2017
Kindred Group has been ordered to pay £1.6m by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) after a convicted fraudster was found to have gambled £629,420 with the operator.
A UKGC investigation revealed that Kindred, operating under its Platinum Gaming Ltd licence in the UK, had failed to identify gambling harm and prevent money laundering after the customer had made large deposits and incurred significant losses in a short period of time in 2017.
Investigators discovered the operator had failed to adequately identify the source of funds being used by the individual.
The investigation was the result of information passed to the Commission about a customer who had been convicted of a £2m fraud and had been spending stolen money through several gambling operators.
It was not confirmed whether these additional operators are also currently under investigation.
The UKGC said that despite the seriousness of the failures, it chose not to review Kindred’s Platinum Gaming licence as it “appeared to be an isolated incident.”
It also cited that Kindred, which curently only has the Unibet brand live in the UK, had made clear improvements in areas where these failings were found to have occurred.
Richard Watson, Gambling Commission executive director, said there were weaknesses in Kindred’s anti-money laundering policies which had resulted in the source of funds not being established.
“This is not acceptable and I would urge all operators to carefully read this case and learn lessons so they don’t make the same mistakes,” Watson said.
He added: “This is yet another example of us taking firm action against online operators who fail to protect consumers or implement effective safeguards against money laundering.
“We must see the industry stepping up and providing consumers in Great Britain with the safest and fairest gambling market in the world.”
Platinum Gaming Ltd to pay £1.6m for social responsibility and money laundering failures. Read more here: https://t.co/UC0TIHW4dq pic.twitter.com/cmX60UAlz0
— Gambling Commission (@GamRegGB) June 13, 2019
As part its agreed regulatory settlement, Kindred returned the £629,420 to the fraudster’s victims and will make a further payment of £990,200 in lieu of a financial penalty.
“Kindred deeply regrets that the case, which dates-back to 2017, has occurred and that we failed to fully follow our own procedures,” a Kindred spokesperson told EGR.
“Compliance, integrity and customer safety are fundamental parts of our Sustainability Framework and as such at the very top of our corporate strategy.
“As a group, we monitor, act on and report, all suspicious behavior we detect, which was done in this specific case. In this specific case, we did not act quickly enough.”
The UKGC has confirmed the money will be spent accelerating delivery of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms.
Kindred is the second online gambling operator to be penalised by the UKGC in the space of 24 hours following the £1.2m penalty issued yesterday to fellow operator Gamesys.
Today’s regulatory settlement can be read in full on the Gambling Commission website here.