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Blue Star Planet, operator of 10bet.co.uk, will pay £620,000 to the UK Gambling Commission for failings in anti-money laundering (AML) and responsible gambling policies.
Between November 2019 and June 2021, Blue Star Planet had lax anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing policies, and had failures in interacting with players who were at risk of developing problem gambling habits, the commission said on Thursday (February 16).
The Malta-based company made an agreed settlement with the commission, after the regulator found weaknesses in its implementation of policies and in reporting.
The company had set financial controls in place to limit deposits that were set too high, the commission said.
Financial limits on deposits meant to trigger AML risk alerts were also set too high, the regulator said.
Also, some players were allowed to deposit significant amounts of money quickly, before adequate risk profiling could take place, the Gambling Commission said.
Source of funds evidence should have been requested at an earlier stage for some customers and some players were able to gamble “at high velocity” before automated restrictions were applied, according to the regulator.
Some players that received interactions should have been restricted from further play due to money-laundering or terrorist-financing risks that appeared, the commission wrote.
Financial deposit limits were set too high and thus were not effective in controlling high-velocity spending, allowing some players to exceed AML risk thresholds, the regulator said.
There were also no dedicated compliance staff employed to monitor safer-gambling alerts overnight, so triggers were reviewed the next day, the regulator said.
The lack of overnight monitoring meant that some players hit safe gambling triggers without risk assessments and interactions occurring during the gambling session, the commission said.
Blue Star Planet’s settlement was mitigated by its early recognition of its failings and its cooperation with the regulator.
