William Hill Group has been fined £6.2m over a failure to prevent money laundering and inaction over problem gambling.
The UK’s Gambling Commission found that the bookmaker breached anti-money laundering and social responsibility rules.
Ten customers were allowed deposit large sums linked to criminal offences, allowing William Hill to gain £1.2m, with the bookmaker not doing enough to seek information about the source of the funds or to establish whether the customers were problem gamblers.
One customer, who lived in rented accommodation while earning £30,000 per year, was allowed to deposit £654,000 over nine months without source of funds checks being carried out.
Another customer on the same salary was found to have been stealing from his employer to fund a habit that included depositing £541,000 with William Hill over 14 months, with the operator assuming that his potential income could be £365,000 per annum based on a verbal conversation and without further probing.
And a customer who deposited £653,000 over 18 months activated a financial alert flagging up an "amber" risk which led to an alert for a customer profile review. The file was marked to be passed to management, but a systems failure occurred and the customer was able to continue gambling for a further six months despite continuing to activate alerts.
Gambling Commission executive director Neil McArthur 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.”
