A bookmaker must pay a £6.2m ‘penalty package’ for what the UK gambling sector regulator called ‘systemic social responsibility and money laundering failures’. The Gambling Commission found that between November 2014 and August 2016 William Hill breached anti-money laundering and social responsibility regulations.
Senior managers at William Hill failed to mitigate risks and have enough of staff to ensure their anti-money laundering and social responsibility processes were effective. This resulted in ten customers being allowed to deposit large sums of money linked to crimes which resulted in gains for the bookmaker of around £1.2m. William Hill did not adequately seek information about the source of their funds or establish whether they were problem gamblers, the regulator said. Police have investigated or are investigating all ten for theft or money laundering.
William Hill will pay more than £5m for breaching regulations – to go to charities ‘for socially responsible purposes’ – and divest themselves of the £1.2m they earned from transactions with the ten customers. Where victims of the ten customers are identified, they will be reimbursed. If further incidents of failures relating to this case emerge, William Hill will divest any money made from these transactions.
The firm will also appoint external auditors to review its anti-money laundering and social responsibility policies and procedures and share learning with the wider industry. For the full details of the firm’s breach of licence, visit the Gambling Commission website.
Neil McArthur, Executive Director of the Birmingham-based Gambling Commission, said: “We will use the full range of our enforcement powers to make gambling fairer and safer. This was a systemic failing at William Hill which went on for nearly two years and today’s penalty package – which could exceed £6.2m – reflects the seriousness of the breaches. Gambling businesses have a responsibility to ensure that they keep crime out of gambling and tackle problem gambling – and as part of that they must be constantly curious about where the money they are taking is coming from.”
William Hill CEO, Philip Bowcock, said: “William Hill has fully co-operated with the Commission throughout this process, introducing new and improved policies and increased levels of resourcing. We have also committed to an independent process review and will work to implement any recommendations that emerge from that review. We are fully committed to operating a sustainable business that properly identifies risk and better protects customers. We will continue to assist the Commission and work with other operators to improve practices in the areas identified.”
Among the cases, a customer who was allowed to deposit £653,000 in an 18 month period activated a financial alert at William Hill. That resulted in a grading of ‘amber risk’ which required, in accordance with the bookmaker’s anti-money laundering policy, a customer profile to be reviewed. The file was marked as passed to managers for review but this did not occur.
