Gambling Commission fines VGC Leeds for failings
The British regulator has ordered the land-based casino operator to pay a penalty for several social responsibility and AML breaches.
UK.- The Gambling Commission has reached a regulatory settlement with VGC Leeds Limited for failings in the implementation of anti-money laundering and safer gambling procedures.
The land-based operator, which trades under the name Global Gaming Ventures, has agreed to pay £450,000 including £241,000 for the amount of financial gain accrued through accepted failings and £209,000 in lieu of a financial penalty. VGC will also pay costs of £21,578.17.
The Gambling Commission began an investigation into the operator, which has non-remote casino and ancillary remote casino licences, after it identified concerns during a compliance assessment in July 2019. It looked into how the operator dealt with 10 customers between January 2017 and July 2019.
It found that VGC Leeds failed to identify customers who presented a risk of gambling-related harm, thereby breaching Social Responsibility Code Provision (SRCP) 3.4.1 which required the use of policies and procedures for customer interactions when a player’s behaviour could indicate problem gambling.
The Gambling Commission said the operator had not used all of the relevant information available to it to ensure effective decision making and to guide interactions.
It also identified failings under licence condition 12.1.1 related to the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing through failure to carry out sufficient checks on the sources of customer funds.
As an example, it pointed to the case of a customer who incurred losses of £275,000 in 22 months before being asked to provide evidence of their sources of funds. VGC eventually accepted the customer’s position as the main shareholder of a dormant company to justify his funds. VGC also failed to record interactions and its rationale for decisions.
VGC accepted the regulator’s findings and cooperated with its investigation. It has since carried out a review of its process and a gap analysis and implemented a new social responsibility policy.
It has also improved record-keeping and refined its recycled winnings process to make sure that its acceptance of recycled winnings as a source of funds is documented.
The operator has also begun a relationship with the NHS Northern Gambling Clinic to improve staff awareness and skills for interacting with customers exhibiting signs of problem gambling.
Commission executive director Helen Venn said: “These failings were identified as part of our ongoing drive to raise standards across the whole gambling industry.
“All operators should be very aware that we will not hesitate to take action against those who fail to follow rules that are in place to make gambling safer and prevent it being a source of crime.
“Consumer protection should be an operator’s main priority and we would advise every gambling business to read the public statement so they do not make the same mistakes as VGC.”
