The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that the online gambling company Blue Star Planet Limited, trading as 10Bet, has been served a monetary penalty worth £620,000 due to unveiled social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings.
The company, which currently runs the 10bet.co.uk gambling platform, is set to pay the fine as part of a regulatory settlement with the country’s gambling watchdog. The entire amount that it is set to pay will be redirected to socially responsible causes.
On February 16th, the UKGC published a public statement regarding the monetary penalty issued to Blue Star Planet, t/a 10Bet, reminding all gambling companies in the country they have a legal duty to make sure their services comply with the Gambling Act 2005.
As part of their licence conditions and in accordance with the licensing objectives, gambling operators in the UK are required to prevent gambling from being a source of disorder or crime or from being associated with such. They are also required to protect children and other vulnerable members of society from suffering gambling-related harm or being exploited by gambling and need to make sure that their services are conducted and offered in a safe, fair and transparent manner.
Several Licence Conditions Failures Found by the UKGC
The investigation and the subsequent review of the evidence held by the country’s gambling regulator found there had been failures in the way Blue Star Planet Limited implemented the country’s anti-money laundering policies, controls and procedures. There were also deficiencies in the company’s responsible gambling policies, controls, procedures and practices, as well as weaknesses in the implementation of these policies. The online gambling operator also had weaknesses in its reporting arrangements.
The UK Gambling Commission revealed that it carried out an investigation into the company’s operations that found failures in the processes aimed at prevention of money laundering and customer protection. The failures in question were identified by the gambling watchdog after the completion of a compliance assessment that was held by Commission Officials between June 22nd and June 25th, 2021.
According to the findings of the regulatory probe, Blue Star Planet Limited failed to comply with a number of Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) between November 2019 and June 2021.
In its official statement on the matter, the UKGC revealed that the company breached paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of its 12.1.1 licence condition in regard to the prevention of terrorist financing and money laundering. The company was also found to have violated licence condition 12.1.2 which requires gambling companies based in foreign jurisdictions to make sure they are in line with the country’s Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations of 2017.
Apart from that, Blue Star Planet was found to have breached paragraph 1a of the 8.1.1 licence condition that requires the holders of remote gambling permits to display information about their licence by the UKGC on every screen visible to their customers. The operator violated paragraphs 1b, 1c and 2 of Social Responsibility Code Provision 3.4.1, under which it is required to interact with its customers to minimise the risk of them facing gambling-related harm.
As mentioned above, the online gambling operator will now pay £620,000 instead of facing another financial penalty, with the UK Gambling Commission having taken into account the remedial action taken by Blue Star Planet.
- Author
Olivia Cole
