Bet 365 have lost their clean slate, as today (04/04/2024) the Gambling Commission announce they are to pay £582,120 for AML and social responsibility failures.

Arguably the biggest player in the UK market, Bet365 have received one of the smallest fines or settlements that the Commission have given in recent history.

The Bet365 fine stresses the importance of not just having compliant policies, but making sure you are checking they are effective by reviewing your customer accounts, or maybe employing some seasoned veterans like Luke – Audit, Risk and Compliance to give you a detailed review from another set of eyes ;)

These public releases are designed to assist operators in avoiding the same pitfalls, so be sure to monitor and use them effectively!

The link to the full release can be found on the Commission website HERE. We encourage all operators to look over the ‘Good Practice’ recommendations given at the end of the Commission statement.

Operators should consider the following questions:

• do you have formal processes in place to measure the effectiveness of your anti-money laundering and safer gambling policies and are findings adequately recorded?
• do you efficiently record all compliance-related decisions and are you able to demonstrate to the Commission, on request, evidence of ongoing assessment, evaluation and improvement?
• do lessons learned from public statements flow into your policies and procedures?
• do you undertake financial sanctions checks on new customers prior to their first deposits?
• are your customer risk profiles informed by or linked to your ML and TF risk assessment?
• do you have a formalised process for analysing the effectiveness of customer interactions to ensure that reviews were adequately documented and consistent in their approach?
• do you log the types of behaviour which have triggered a customer interaction and keep sufficient records of interactions, along with decisions not to interact especially in terms of the level of detail provided?
• have your staff received sufficient anti-money laundering and social responsibility training?