Maple International Ventures Limited, which operates UK-licensed Lottomart, is to pay a £360,000 settlement after a Gambling Commission (GC) investigation found it had failed social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) controls.
The settlement will be paid on lieu of a financial penalty, including a divestment of £50,000, with all the funds going towards socially responsible causes, the GC said.
The operator will also contribute towards the GC’s costs of investigating the case.
The probe found that between June 2023 and July 2024, Maple International Ventures’ risk assessment for money laundering or terrorist financing was “not appropriate”.
The regulator’s compliance assessment and regulatory review discovered that in the operator’s risk assessment, key risks including “organised crime gangs and mule accounts” were omitted, while it also lacked “sufficient detail”.
The assessment had also not been updated to show either the current or historical versions of the GC’s risk assessment, AML guidance or emerging risks publications.
From May to October 2024, Lottomart’s parent company failed to ensure it had the appropriate AML and counter-terrorism financing policies, procedures and controls.
The investigation also found controls for finding duplicate accounts and taking action against them “were not always effective”.
The GC noted an instance where a customer was able evade automated controls by switching the order of one of their first two names.
The account was picked up the following day when the customer suffered significant losses after making large deposits.
During that same time period, there was a time delay in the operator’s money laundering risk being identified and the relevant action being taken, according to the GC.
This led to customers being able to make transactions “beyond the financial threshold that had been set for undertaking customer due diligence checks”.
However, the identified customers were found to have no evidence of criminal spend with Maple International Venture, nor had the company accepted money from people facing financial sanctions.
The operator’s policies, procedures and controls surrounding minimising its customers’ risk of experiencing gambling-related harm were not effectively implemented.
Neither were the processes for monitoring customer activity from when customer accounts were first opened, with the GC finding weaknesses in systems designed to find duplicate or accounts linked to each other.
It was discovered that one customer had been able to open a second account a year after opening their first and make “significant deposits” despite the operator only allowing one account per customer.
Controls were also inadequate for identifying harms including “binges, spikes, overnight play and large wins which are followed by high-staking”.
Additionally, policies failed to “adequately define” what were strong indicators of gambling-related harm, while there were no automated actions in relation to harm.
The GC did find aggravating factors, noting: “Although Maple International Ventures Limited had been aware that customers could surpass its financial threshold for full customer due diligence checks and was working to remedy this by the time the Commission’s assessment began, an effective fix was only implemented after discussions held during the assessment.”
As part of the mitigating factors, the GC said the operator had an “unembellished regulatory history” and was swift in its action to fix the failures and provide updates.
The regulator also acknowledged that Maple International Ventures “fully co-operated” with the investigation and “accepted the failings from an early stage of the investigation”.
John Pierce, the GC’s director of enforcement, said: “The cornerstone of every licensed business must be the proper implementation of effective policies and procedures aimed at making gambling crime free and safer.
“This operator is now being held to account for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failings uncovered during a compliance assessment.
“We would advise all operators to read the Maple International Ventures public statement and consider whether their own policies and procedures are both effective and are being successfully implemented.”
The post Lottomart to pay £360,000 settlement after GC discovers AML failings first appeared on EGR Intel.
Year-long investigation finds procedures and controls were not “adequate”, though regulator highlights the Gibraltar-based operator’s “unblemished record” and cooperation as mitigating factors
The post Lottomart to pay £360,000 settlement after GC discovers AML failings first appeared on EGR Intel.