10bet Fined £620,000 by the Gambling Commission for Multiple Failings

The UK Gambling Commission has been clamping down on online gambling operators that don’t adhere to its complete regulations lately, with harsh penalties on guilty parties. The most recent case involves 10bet, which the regulator accuses of multiple anti-money laundering and social responsibility failings.

After being found guilty by the regulator, Blue Star Planet Limited, operator of the 10bet-branded sportsbook and casino in the UK, agreed to pay a total fine of £620,000.

According to UKGC’s investigations, 10bet committed several breaches between November 2019 and June 2021. The inquiry established that 10Bet had failed to abide by a few regulations of UKGC’s licensing conditions.

The Commission identified problems in the operator’s failures to properly implement anti-money laundering procedures. UKGC also accuses the operator of having insufficient responsible gambling policies and controls and inadequate reporting arrangements.

Regarding anti-money laundering, Blue Star Planet Limited acknowledged that the financial regulations geared towards capping the amount customers can deposit were fixed at an excessive level. The company also admitted that the monetary thresholds to be met before an anti-money laundering risk alert is activated are too high.

On their part, the Commission determined that customers at 10bet could make large deposits briefly before an appropriate risk assessment. To strengthen their case against Blue Star Planet, the regulator pointed out an incident where customers were allowed to gamble rapidly before any automated measures were employed to limit their accounts.

That’s not all. The UKGC found an incident where the customer’s source of funds should have been established briefly after the relationship with the operator rather than later. The UKGC further says that its investigations showed that 10Bet’s current UKGC license status was incorrectly linked on the website. This, the UKGC says, is a violation of their licence protocols. Thankfully, 10Bet has swiftly rectified the situation. All the fines slapped on guilty operators in the UK will be channelled to social responsibility initiatives.

The Commission noted that the violations were severe and that Blue Star Planet’s top management knew the administration issues that led to the transgressions.

Nevertheless, some circumstances reduced the severity of the case against them, such as the operator’s prompt acknowledgement of its mistakes and smooth collaboration during the investigation and evaluation process.

Remember that the Gambling Commission has already fined multiple operators this year, with a collective penalty of over £7.5m. Most of that amount is £6.1m fine handed to InTouch games.