British online gaming operator fined for money laundering failures

The gaming website company was also given a formal warning for the failures which occurred between January 2019 and March 2020.

Daub Alderney’s AML failings included having inappropriate policies, procedures and controls in place to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Examples the commission provided included a customer being allowed to deposit £50,000 before the company sought source of funds evidence and another permitted to deposit £41,500 in a month without supplying adequate source of funds evidence.

Among the social responsibility failings was neglecting to put into effect policies and procedures for customer interaction where it was concerned the customer’s activity may indicate problem gambling.

One client was allowed to lose £43,410 in four months despite using four different payment cards in one day, while another lost £40,500 in a month with Daub Alderney sending just two safer gambling messages and a pop up which were not evaluated for effectiveness.

A third customer lost £39,000 in 3½ months but received just one safer gambling message and two pop ups, again which were not evaluated for effectiveness.

The commission recognised that a good proportion of the failures occurred before the Rank entertainment group took control of Daub Alderney in October 2019 and there have been improvements since the acquisition.

Referring to Daub Alderney the commission’s executive director Helen Venn said: “The licensee’s culpability, and the requisite penalty reflecting that culpability, cannot be affected by the fact that its shares have now passed from one set of investors to another. The licensee does not escape or mitigate the consequences of its actions because its shares are sold.”

She also commented: “This case was the result of planned compliance activity and every operator out there should be aware that we will continue to take firm action against those who fail to raise standards.”

Daub Alderney runs aspers.com, kittybingo.com, luckypantsbingo.com, luckyvip.com, magicalvegas.com, regalwins.com and spinandwin.com.