Lithuanian gambling regulator warns Top Sport over AML failings
The Lithuanian Gambling Supervisory Authority identified insufficient AML procedures in several areas.
Lithuania.- The Lithuanian Gambling Supervisory Authority has issued another warning to Top Sport for a breach of regulations, but this time there was no fine. It warned that Top Sport had not applied sufficient anti-money laundering (AML) controls for slots.
It found lacking internal procedures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing in several areas. It said that between January 2020 and January 2023, Top Sport failed to conduct sufficient risk assessments, monitoring and training.
However, the regulator said that considering the circumstances, it has chosen only to issue a warning on this occasion.
Top Sport is no stranger to reprimands from the Lithuania gambling regulator. Last month, the Lithuanian Gambling Supervisory Authority hit the operator with three fines in one week. They included a €15,000 fine for allowing someone to use their payment card to top-up the balances of accounts belonging to two other players.
It had previously issued the operator with a €25,000 fine for allowing minors to enter a slots venue and, just one day later, a €15,000 fine for breaching mobile betting rules due to automatic bets being placed on a roulette table supplied by Ezugi.
More recently, the regulator has handed out another fine for a breach of the country’s strict ban on gambling promotion, ordering Baltic Bet to pay €16,705.
The regulator found that Baltic Bet had published information on its website between November 3, 2022 and February 28 of this year that encouraged people to gamble. It also noted that Baltic Bet used the keywords “Optibet casino” and “Optibet live betting” on Google search listings, which it said drew attention to the operator’s website. Both of these were found to be breaches of Article 10, Paragraph 19 of the Lithuanian Gambling Act, which bans operators from encouraging gambling.
