Well-known betting firm William Hill has picked up a £6.2 million penalty from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) due to breaching anti-money laundering regulations and social responsibility expectations.10 customers were able to deposit money that could be linked to criminal offences, and William Hill benefitted to the sum of £1.2 million as a result.The fine, which is the second largest the UKGC has ever given behind the £7.8 million that 888 were charged last year, is said to be able to rise if more people come forward.
What happened?
In a statement from the UKGC, it was explained that senior management at William Hill “failed to mitigate risks and have sufficient numbers of staff to ensure their anti-money-laundering and social responsibility processes were effective”.Essentially, William Hill did not do what is considered enough to check where the money being deposited was coming from, or if problem gamblers were making the deposits.According to UKGC Executive Director Tim Miller in an interview with the BBC, William Hill were not “checking the source of money and understanding their customers and ensuring that potentially vulnerable customers are properly protected”.
Examples
The investigation by the UKGC, which covered the period from November 2014 to August 2016, found several examples of what it referred to as insufficient controls.These included one customer who deposited nearly £550,000 over 14 months, William Hill, based on limited conversation, assumed the player earned enough to cover that, but it was later discovered that the player in fact earned only £30,000 a year and was stealing from their employer to fund the habit.This is one of many examples, and if recent reports are to be believed, William Hill are not the only operator who have been under investigation, so we can expect more stories like this in the coming months.