White Hat Gaming to pay £1.3m settlement for AML and social responsibility failings
Malta-based operator failed to interact effectively with customer who lost £85,000 in just over an hour
White Hat Gaming has paid a regulatory settlement worth £1.3m after the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) identified failings in the operator’s AML and problem gambling procedures.
The regulator launched a review of White Hat Gaming’s operating licence in January 2020 to investigate seven customer accounts. The failures occurred between October 2016 and March 2019.
The probe found that White Hat Gaming failed to establish source of funds for one customer who lost £70,000 over a three-month period from October 2018.
When this activity sparked an internal trigger, White Hat Gaming created a customer intelligence report which indicated the consumer had a successful previous career and owned an expensive property without a mortgage.
However, source of funds were not identified and the customer’s account remained open. White Hat Gaming accepts the UKGC’s assessment that it should have intervened immediately.
The regulator also discovered “ineffective interactions” with a customer who lost £50,000 in just six hours before self-excluding and another who lost £85,000 in just over an hour.
The latter customer received four interactions and one higher-level interaction with additional safer gambling messaging before White Hat Gaming locked their account on the same day.
However, the UKGC ruled the amount lost by the customer demonstrated that the interactions were not delivered effectively in accordance with the UK’s social responsibility code.
UKGC executive director Richard Watson said: “Through our tough compliance and enforcement activity we will continue our work to raise standards in the industry and continue to hold failing operators to account.”
The operator’s £1.3m payment is in lieu of a financial penalty and will be directed towards delivering the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms. The firm will also pay UKGC costs.
The failings occurred across the operator’s Grand Ivy, 21 Casino, Hello Casino and Dream Vegas online gaming brands.
White Hat Gaming has since pledged to overhaul its approach to AML and social responsibility, and has committed to an ongoing programme of improvement to strengthen policies and procedures.
These improvements include the automated prevention of more spending once limits are triggered, an increase in safer gambling interactions, more robust source of funds checks and regular reviews of AML controls.
“WHG recognises the importance of publicising the findings of regulatory investigations to assist the wider industry in learning from any shortcomings and to assist in the general improvement of the regulatory compliance of the industry as a whole,” said the operator in an official statement.
“In this context, it is important to note the historical nature of this evaluation which resulted in the regulatory settlement as well as the continued and significant efforts by WHG to make gambling safer for our customers in the UK.
“We are proud to have worked closely with the Gambling Commission to bring our thresholds, policies and procedures in line with best practice and in line with the commission’s objective to raise standards within the industry.
“WHG invested, and continues to invest in people, policies and processes, in the areas of safer gambling, affordability and AML with customer sustainability remaining central to the operating principles at WHG,” it added.