Rank Group’s Daub Alderney Fined £5.85m for Breaching UKGC Regulations

A review of Daub Alderney’s operations in the United Kingdom has seen the Gambling Commission impose another multi-million pound fine on the operator.

On Tuesday, the British Gambling Commission announced that it had taken regulatory action against Rank Group’s Daub Alderney after a series of investigations revealed a breach of anti-money laundering and social responsibility regulations.

In its statement, the regulator noted that it had issued the operator with a £5.85 million fine for failing to deploy effective tools to detect problem gambling or act to prevent customers from losing massive amounts of money within a short period.

Commenting on the regulator’s decision in a press release, the Executive Director of the Gambling Commission, Helen Venn said:

‘’This case was the result of planned compliance activity, and every operator out there should be aware that we will continue to take firm action against those who fail to raise standards.’’

The fine also comes with a formal warning.

This is not the first time the regulator is penalizing Daub Alderney for failure to comply with UKGC rules. The operator was served with a £7.1 million fine in 2020 for failing to enforce anti-money laundering regulations or protect vulnerable players.

UKGC Review Exposes Company’s Social Responsibility Failures

The Commission cited three incidents that took place between January 2019 and March 2020 in the Tuesday statement to support its case of social responsibility failings against Daub Alderney.

The first instance involves a player who was allowed to lose £45,410 over a period of four months, despite showing signs of gambling addiction. The investigations revealed that the customer was at one point allowed to deposit using four different payment cards in one day, and they also reversed about £133,875 in requested withdrawals.

In the second instance, a player lost £40,500 in a month but they only received two safer gambling texts and a pop-up from the operator. A third player lost £39,000 over three and a half months, but Daub Alderney did not take any action apart from sending them one safer gambling reminder and two pop ups.

The regulator added that these messages were not evaluated for effectiveness.

Operator also Penalized for Anti-Money Laundering Failures

Besides failing to have appropriate gambling addiction detection and prevention measures in place, Daub Alderney was also exposed for failing to enforce adequate anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing checks.

For example, the company allowed one customer to deposit £50,000 without asking the player to verify the source of the funds. Also, another player was allowed to deposit £41,500 within a duration of one month without being asked to supply ample source of funds evidence.

In yet another incident, a player lost £53,000 in eight months, and the only source of evidence he provided was proof that he lived in a house valued at £233k.

The statement by the Gambling Commission goes on to note that most of these failures took place before Rank Group’s acquisition of Daub Alderney’s founding company, Stride Gaming, in October 2019. The Commission further acknowledged that Rank Group had taken several steps to improve the company’s consumer protection and anti-money laundering policies since the merger was finalized.

Nevertheless, the regulator has maintained that the transfer of ownership would not affect the operator’s culpability or obligation to pay the fine.

‘’The Licensee’s culpability, and the requisite penalty reflecting that culpability, cannot be affected by the fact that its shares have now passed from one set of investors to another. The Licensee does not escape or mitigate the consequences of its actions because its shares are sold,’’ said the Commission’s Executive Director Helen Venn.

 The regulator’s ruling is subject to appeal.