UKGC Has Fined 888 UK Limited £9.4M for Failing to Comply with Social Responsibility

By John Isaac,
Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac is an editor with many years of experience in the gambling industry. He writes expert articles on card games like blackjack and poker. In addition, he is also well aware of the US gambling laws and the Indian and Dutch gambling markets. You can rely on verified information and insightful details.

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Last updated: March 12, 2022

UKGC has fined 888 Holdings £9.4m for social responsibility and money laundering issues in its network of brands. The UKGC recently announced that the operator had received a legal notice and was needed to conduct a comprehensive independent investigation.

The investigation showed that 888 violated a number of conditions related to the application of anti-money laundering criteria and obligations of the Social Responsibility rules. The UKGC presented an overview of money laundering, stating that 888 has established a guideline to allow clients to deposit £40,000 prior to Verification of Source.

Other violations prevented 888 from having an effective source-of-funds documentation policy whereby compliance teams would accept oral commitments from clients about their earnings.

Meantime, the commission accuses 888 workers of getting verbal guarantees of their wages from players instead of supporting documents. When the operator once asked about availability, it set a $1,740 monthly deposit limit for a user who it knew was an NHS employee and making $1,876 dollars per month.

What UKGC Discovered About 888?

The UKGC found a system bug in the 888 Casino networks that permitted users to deposit and play for ten days, requiring the submission of source-of-fund documents. Significantly, the committee found that one client received £65,835 within five months without any source-of-fund checks.

888 was found to be unable to competently recognize users at risk of loss due to its policy of requiring financial verification after a client has deposited £40k. A policy error cost one client £37k over a half-year period during the coronavirus epidemic during which 888 operators were reported to have failed to intervene in customer service.

The survey found that the majority of client support interactions fell short of the mandated measure of an email containing only reliable betting tools and no customer feedback. Unfortunately, the study found that at the time of review, there was no proof that the operator’s social responsibility accounts were actively restricted.

It is not the first time that 888 casino operators facing legal action from the UK Gambling Commission, which ordered operator FTSE250 to pay £7.8m in 2017 for failing to secure vulnerable clients.

7K Clients Couldn’t Access Their Accounts in 2017

In August 2017, the operator was fined because a software bug prevented over 7k clients from accessing their accounts. These clients were able to deposit $4.7 m into their accounts and keep playing for over one year before the problem was identified.

In 2021, the UKGC has taken a stronger point of view on sanctions and tighter licensing controls on returning operators. According to Chief Executive Officer Andrew Rhodes, the situation of the recent implementation efforts may vary, but the two cases include customer non-compliance which is unacceptable.

“Today’s fine is one of our largest to date, and all should be clear that if there is a repeat of the failures at 888 then we have to seriously consider the suitability of the operator to uphold the licensing objectives and keep gambling safe and crime-free.”