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The UK’s Gambling Commission has fined In Touch Games £6.1m for failings in social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) policies, its third seven-figure regulatory action since 2019.
Social responsibility failures from a March 2022 compliance assessment included not interacting with a player until seven weeks after they had been flagged for erratic play patterns and extended periods of play, the Gambling Commission said today (January 25).
Another included accepting a gambler’s word that they earned £6,000 per month without verifying the information, after the player’s account was flagged due to player spending and their gambling during unsociable hours, the regulator said.
AML errors included failing to adequately take account of the risk of a player being a beneficiary of a life insurance policy, having links to high-risk jurisdictions, being a politically exposed person, or a family member or known close associates of such a person, in an AML and counter-terrorist financing risk (CTF) assessment, the commission said.
In Touch did not have policies, procedures and controls to address the risk factors associated with being linked to high-risk jurisdictions and being a politically exposed person, the regulator wrote.
It also did not adequately consider the regulator’s AML and CTF assessments, or its guidance, the regulator said.
In Touch also did not ensure its policies, procedures and controls were effectively implemented.
For example, it did not follow its own policies to request source-of-funds details from players who had deposited and lost £12,000 in a 12-month period, the Gambling Commission wrote.
The Birmingham, England-based company operates 11 websites, including slotfactory.com, bonusboss.co.uk, cashmo.co.uk and jammymonkey.com.
In 2019, In Touch paid a £2.2m settlement for regulatory failures, and in 2021 it got a £3.4m fine and warning for additional failings.
“Considering this operator’s history of failings we expected to see significant improvement when we carried out our planned compliance assessment,” said Kay Roberts, executive director of operators for the regulator. “Disappointingly, although many improvements had been made, there was still more to do.”
“This £6.1m fine shows that we will take escalating enforcement action where failures are repeated and all licensees should be acutely aware of this,” she said.
In Touch cooperated with the commission, acknowledged its failings and took immediate remedial action, the regulator said.
