Gambling Commission fines Buzz Bingo over AML failings
The British regulator has fined Buzz Bingo £780,000 for failings that occurred between October 2019 and December 2020.
UK.- The Gambling Commission has fined Buzz Bingo £780,000 after detecting a series of failings in its anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility procedures.
The failings occurred under the company’s previous owner, Caledonia Investments, before Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) acquired its majority stake in the operator for a nominal amount in March of this year.
The regulator found signs that suggested Buzz Bingo’s financial triggers were set too high, including a case of a player who deposited £22,400 in five days without receiving any form of “meaningful interaction”.
Another player deposited, and lost, £12,400 over a period of six days, but the only record on the customer’s account said they were “coping well in Covid-19”.
The commission found that even when Buzz Bingo did carry out interactions, it didn’t always follow its own procedures. It also found the operator had “failed to consider the increased risk of gambling harm” with two customers who had won large sums.
As for anti-money laundering measures, the Gambling Commission concluded that the operator relied too much on open-source and anecdotal, for example, trusting that a large customer win served as proof of funds.
It also noted that “one customer was able to hit nine financial alerts before their account was suspended pending an AML interaction”.
Records of AML interactions also often lacked detail, the regulator said. It ruled that Buzz Bingo had breached Social Responsibility Code of Practice provision 3.4.1, paragraphs 2 and 3 of Licence Condition 12.1.1 on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and Ordinary Code Provision 2.1.1.
Gambling Commission executive director Helen Venn said: “As a regulator we expect all operators to effectively implement policies and procedures which make gambling safe and crime-free.
“Every single gambling business should be aware that we do check that these are in place and are being adhered to. If they are not, we will take action.”
Buzz Bingo responds to AML failings
Buzz Bingo chief operating officer Dominic Mansour stressed that the company has since overhauled its compliance processes to avoid similar errors in the future.
He said: “One of Buzz Bingo’s core values has always been to put players first and protect those that are vulnerable. Buzz Bingo is fully committed to ensuring it meets the highest standards of compliance across its digital platform, including its anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations.
“The fine from the Gambling Commission relates to legacy issues that have now been addressed. Buzz Bingo has reviewed and overhauled all its compliance measures and is confident that current policies and processes now meet the standards set.
“Moreover, Buzz Bingo has increased its current and ongoing investment to enhance all its risk and compliance processes to continually improve player protection.”
Speaking at the GambleAware conference last week, the Gambling Commission’s interim chief executive Andrew Rhodes warned that the threat of the black market would not deter the regulator from acting against licensed operators.
He raised concerns about the number of repeat offences observed in what has been the busiest year yet for Gambling Commission enforcement actions.
