On the 5^th of November the Gambling Commission have released a statement regarding a fine issued to NetBet Enterprises for Anti Money Laundering and Social Responsibility failures.

This fine will be paid as part of a settlement with the full amount going to social responsibility causes and NetBet will also be required to take immediate action and undergo an independent audit of their policies, procedures, and controls.

AML Related findings

Breach of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Licence Condition 12.1.1:

• It was revealed that the operators risk assessment was not appropriate due to missing key risks.
• The operator showed over reliance on financial triggers with there being evidence of customers spend being disproportionate to their income as well as examples of concerning activity on a players account not resulting in a change to the players ‘low’ risk score.
• Failures to ensure policies and procedures were implemented effectively were also identified with an example given of a customer depositing £2k within 4 days and having a high-risk occupation that was not refereed to the MLRO. This customer had also deposited a total £1650 within a two-hour period, this being a disproportionate spend in comparison to their evidenced income of £2,800.

Breach of Licence Condition 15.3.1 – General and regulatory returns:

• Inaccurate information was submitted when regulatory returns were filed.

Safer Gambling Related findings

Failure to comply with paragraphs 1, 2, 5 (a, b and c) 10, 11 and 14 of SRCP 3.4.3:

• Indicators of harm including overnight play, velocity of deposits/exhausting limits and escalated gameplay were not identified in a timely manner and often on flagged during manual reviews when conducted.
• It was identified that there was no evaluation of low-level interactions despite repeated concerning behaviour shown.
• The operator did not take into account the Commission’s guidance on customer interaction for remote operators.
• The operator was not compliant with paragraphs 5 (a) customer spend, 5 (b) patterns of spend and 5(c) time spent gambling. Notably it was identified that a customer that had multiple sessions of gameplay during unsociable hours accompanied by concerning deposit behaviour. This only resulted in automated email and pop-up interactions once SG alerts were hit.
• Another example being a customer that had repeatedly exhausted their monthly deposit limit in a short amount of time as well as depositing a total £31,000 within a two-day period due to limits being set on a per calendar month basis. These concerns were only identified once a manual review of the account was conducted.
• The operators policies were not adequate as they did not include any reference to the procedures in which customers are informed of decisions made solely by automated means or their right to consent to that decision, it also did not reference SRCP 3.4.3 paragraph 14.

Failure to comply with SRCP 3.2.11 – Remote SR code, paragraph 2b:

• A review of the operators website found that there was no warning to customers that underage gambling is an offense. This was rectified immediately once brought to the operators attention.

Failure to comply with paragraph 2 of SRCP 5.1.9 – Other marketing requirements:

• The operators £1 million Jackpot prize did not include significant terms of the promotion on the website.

On this, the commission took into account the following factors:

Our recommendations

Gambling operators should take account of the failings identified in this investigation to ensure industry learning. Operators should consider the following recommendations;

• Have financial hard stops for EDD and high risk AML triggers, do not allow customers to deposit further once flagged for EDD or as high risk.
• Ensure your safer gambling controls identify all the potential indicators of harm, as required by SRCP 3.4.3?
• Ensure AML and SG triggers operate on a calendar-month basis instead of rolling periods. If not then make sure you control against the associated risks.
• Ensure you are evaluating all customer interactions
• Regularly review your terms and conditions and website for LCCP compliance and keep record of this process.

LINKS TO FULL DETAILS

Read the Commissions release here
Read the full public statement here