Gambling Commission fines UK gambling operator £10m
Platinum Gaming Limited has received a warning and must undergo an audit after multiple AML and social responsibility failings at Unibet.co.uk and uk.bingo.com.
UK.- The Gambling Commission has announced that Platinum Gaming Limited, the operator of unibet.co.uk and uk.bingo.com, will pay a £10m penalty due to anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility failings. The operator will also receive a warning and have to undergo a third-party audit to ensure it is effectively implementing its anti-money laundering and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls.
Social responsibility failings included employing a customer interaction system that failed to identify a player as at risk of harm despite the player losing £5,000 within 24 hours of registration and going on to lose more than £16,000 in less than three months. The operator also failed to interact with a consumer who lost over £31,000 within nine months, hit their monthly loss limit on six occasions, and demonstrated markers of harm associated with high-velocity gambling.
Other breaches included not identifying a consumer who exceeded their £2,500 loss limit within 16 minutes of registering their account as potentially being at risk of harm. The operator also failed to identify binge gambling and didn’t interact with a customer during a 23-day period in which they staked £73,000 and lost £4,100.
AML breaches
As for anti-money laundering, the regulator found that the licensee’s money laundering/terrorist financing risk assessment failed to take into account customers whose accounts had been closed due to money laundering or terrorist funding concerns prior to 2023. This enabled some customers whose accounts had been blocked to open new accounts and gamble.
The AML policy in place at the time lacked clarity around the level of customer due-diligence and enhanced customer due-diligence measures conducted and how this was determined by the level of risk displayed by a customer. Moreover, despite being covered in the licensee’s risk assessment, there was no evidence that potential high-risk factors such as high-risk occupation, high levels of transactions through deposits and withdrawals and a high level of loss, had been considered when customer reviews were undertaken.
Not the first time
It’s the second time that Platinum Gaming has faced enforcement action from the Gambling Commission in recent years. In 2023, it was fined £2.9m for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures. The latest penalty is the largest fine that the Gambling Commission has issued this year.
John Pierce, the Gambling Commission’s director of enforcement, said: “While industry wide progress has been made in reducing unchecked high spending, the failings at Platinum Gaming are particularly disappointing. The case revealed serious shortcomings in customer interaction systems, including failures to identify and act on clear markers of harm. These included consumers losing thousands within hours or days of registration, repeatedly breaching loss limits, and exhibiting patterns of binge and high-velocity gambling without appropriate intervention.
“Significant anti-money laundering failures were also identified. These included gaps in the licensee’s risk assessment, which failed to account for previously blocked accounts linked to money laundering concerns, and a lack of clarity in the AML policy around due diligence thresholds. Customer reviews did not consistently consider high-risk factors, despite these being outlined in the licensee’s own framework.”
He continued: “Alongside the £10m financial penalty this operator is required to conduct a follow-up independent audit and internal investigation – providing regular updates to the Commission. These added conditions are designed to drive meaningful change, reinforce accountability, and embed a culture of compliance.
“Senior leaders must take ownership of compliance outcomes and ensure lessons are embedded across the organisation, supported by structured reporting and board level oversight – and further regulatory activity will remain a possibility.”
Meanwhile, Pierce has stressed how the Gambling Commission is adapting its enforcement action to the evolution of unlicensed gambling in the UK. He said the regulator’s Illegal Markets Team was responding to new trends, including the rotation of domains, the rise of crypto gaming and challenges such as AI-generated branding, deepfakes, copied content and decentralised platforms, which are requiring it to strengthen technical knowledge and capabilities.
