British Gambling Commission fines Corbett Bookmakers
The bookmaker has been ordered to undergo a third-party audit of its AML and safer gambling policies.
UK.- The Gambling Commission has issued a £686,070 fine against the retail betting operator Corbett Bookmakers. It found a series of social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failings that occurred between February 2022 and May 2024.
The bookmaker, which runs 36 locations including betting pitches on several UK racecourses, has been ordered to undergo a third-party audit of its AML and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls within 12 months.
The Gambling Commission highlighted the case of a consumer who bet £23,674 within 13 days but was not identified as at risk of harm. Another customer lost £3,523 after placing 56 bets in four hours without receiving adequate interactions. Another player lost £6,741 after staking £47,416 over 10 weeks, also without adequate interaction.
The regulator also detected AML failures, noting cases of players who lost “significant” sums without undergoing KYC checks or any verification of their source of funds because the operator had set high financial thresholds. One customer bet £47,000 and lost £14,000 within eight months without undergoing any verification.
The Gambling Commission also found that Corbett Bookmakers’ failed to take a “sufficiently risk-based” approach to anti-money laundering and terrorist financing since its risk assessment failed to consider the full scope of customer, product, geographic and payment risks.
John Pierce, the Gambling Commission’s director of enforcement, said: “Corbett has failed to adhere to vital regulations designed to make gambling safer and free from criminal activity. As a result, it will not only pay a significant fine but also undergo a rigorous audit to ensure full compliance with anti-money laundering and safer gambling measures.
“In addition to remedial actions already taken, we expect the operator to swiftly and fully implement the audit recommendations, demonstrating clear and measurable improvements in both policy and practice. Failure to do so will prompt our compliance team to reassess the situation and take further action as necessary. All operators should carefully consider this case and the price this operator is now paying.”
Earlier this month, the Gambling Commission announced a £1.4m penalty against AG Communications for breaches of social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) procedures, which included a lack of proactive intervention in cases where players made large spends in a short period of time.
The regulator cited an example of a player who lost £6,000 in 48 hours without receiving any safer gambling interaction until they reached their daily loss limit of £5,000. Another case involved a player who deposited and lost £7,000 in four hours by taking advantage of a system error that disabled backstop limits. A manual review also failed to identify the case. Finally, another customer was able to open several accounts despite having previously self-excluded.
