Gibraltar Cautions Unibet Operator for AML Failures After £10m Fine

The operator of Unibet will face no further penalty from the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner (GGC), after being fined £10 million by British regulator the Gambling Commission last month for social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failings.

The GGC has instead issued a formal caution to Platinum Gaming Limited – operator of Unibet.co.uk and UK.bingo.com. Platinum Gaming conducts its UK operations while being dual licensed in Great Britain and Gibraltar.

What happened?

The social responsibility failures in question included:

• failing to identify a player as at risk of harm despite the player losing £5,000 within 24 hours of registration;
• not interacting with a consumer who lost more than £31,000 within nine months;
• not identifying a player who exceeded their £2,500 loss limit within 16 minutes of registering their account as potentially at risk of harm;
• and not interacting with a customer while they staked £73,000 in 23 days.

Additionally, the AML failures included:

• Platinum Gaming’s money laundering/terrorist financing risk assessment failing to take into account customers whose accounts had been closed due to money laundering or terrorist financing concerns;
• a lack of clarity around customer due diligence regarding AML;
• and providing no evidence that potential several high-risk factors had been considered when customer reviews were undertaken.

Alongside the penalty, Platinum Gaming is required to conduct a follow-up independent audit and internal investigation, providing regular updates to the Gambling Commission. The severity of the fine was partially as it was a repeat offence. In 2023, Platinum Gaming was fined £2.9 million, also for social responsibility and AML failures.

Why involve Gibraltar?

When a Gibraltar license holder is subject to a regulatory sanction in another jurisdiction for AML/counter-terrorist financing (CFT) and countering proliferation financing (CPF), the case is reviewed by the GGC. The GGC listed three reasons as to why it has not decided to pursue a further financial penalty on this occasion.

First, the GGC said the failings were of a historical nature, as they were committed in 2023. Second, the GGC reasoned a significant financial penalty has already been imposed on Platinum Gaming. Third, according to the GGC, Platinum Gaming’s systems and controls in relation to the Gibraltar regulatory regime have been improved, and are considered satisfactory.

The GGC, which mentioned the formal caution will be taken into consideration if other matters come to light in future, said in its ruling: “On balance, the license holder is considered fit and proper to hold a Gibraltar license given the documented improvements it has made to its AML/CFT/CPF systems, controls and approach to risk over time.

“Licence holders which are dual licensed are reminded that they are expected to comply with the AML/CFT/CFP regime not only in Gibraltar but also of other relevant jurisdictions in which they operate. The Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner will not be commenting further on this matter.”

A vocal week for the GGC

This is not the first time the GGC has been in the news this week, after Gibraltar’s Gambling Commissioner and Executive Director for the Government of Gibraltar spoke publicly for the first time about the pending remote betting and gaming duty (RBGD) that is set to be announced in the UK later this month.

While the RBGD would replace the current system of three separate remote betting taxes, Lyman argued on his LinkedIn page there could be room to increase remote gaming duty up by about four or five percentage points from its current rate of 15%.