British Gambling Commission sanctions SkillOnNet
The online casino operator and platform has been sanctioned for AML and social responsibility failures.
UK.- The online casino platform and operator SkillOnNet will pay £305,150 to the British Gambling Commission to atone for several anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility failings. The company, which runs 50 websites on the British market, reached a settlement in place of a fine, with the money to go to responsible gambling programs.
The Gambling Commission found that between January 2021 and December 2022, SkillOnNet breached the regulator’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) for licensees by having insufficient AML policies, procedures and controls and deficient responsible gambling policies, procedures, controls, and implementation.
On the AML side, the operator breached licence condition 12.1.1 by failing to appropriately consider payments from unknown or un-associated third parties in its assessment of money-laundering risks. It also failed to consider the risks posed by organised crime and mule accounts.
The Gambling Commission highlighted a lack of appropriate procedures to evaluate a customer’s salary or wealth in order to detect disproportionate spending and a reliance on verbal declarations from players. The regulator also identified a breach of licence condition 12.1.1(3), which requires the implementation and review of all AML measures. It noted that some customers deposited and lost more than double a £2,000 limit designed to reduce the risk of unverified payment methods.
As for social responsibility failings, the regulator found that SkillOnNet had failed to comply with Social Responsibility Code Provision (SRCP) paragraphs 1 and 2, which require interactions with customers to minimise the risk of gambling harm. The operator failed to identify customers who displayed signs of harm after a win, and a technical problem allowed some players to make big bets at high velocity without safer gambling controls being activated.
The operator also failed to identify customers at risk, allowing one player to lose up to £3,000 per month – more than their monthly salary. The Gambling Commission also flagged up a failure to see playing at night as a marker of harm and a reliance on automated pop-ups for interactions.
On top of the £305,150 settlemnet, SkillOnNet will pay £9,079 towards the costs of the investigation. SkillOnNet agreed to the details of the case being published and to carry out an independent third-party audit. The Gambling Commission said that the operator had cooperated and had already taken steps to correct its breaches.
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