UKGC to allocate £1.4m of Aspire Global funds to social causes

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has ordered AG Communications Ltd – trading as Aspire Global – to pay £1.4m towards social responsibility causes. 

Target of a UKGC investigation, the operator was found to be in breach of Social Responsibility (SR) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures. 

This is the second time that Aspire Global has faced financial reprimanding by the UKGC over AML concerns, having previously paid £237,600 in 2022. 

Some of the newly-constituted SR breaches included a lack of proactiveness from the operator to effectively intervene in cases where a significant spend in a relatively short period of time was identified – essentially limiting the prevention of potential problem gambling behaviour. 

One such example was when a customer lost £6k in 48 hours, with no safer gambling interaction initiated by the operator, according to the UKGC. The only time that the customer was contacted was when they reached their daily loss limit of £5k. 

Another instance of a customer slipping through the cracks of the operator’s surveillance led to the deposit and loss of £7k in four hours, with the player taking advantage of a system error that disabled the backstop limits. A subsequent manual review of the customer also failed to spot what had occurred. 

The last mentioned SR breach highlighted that a third customer was able to open a number of gambling accounts despite having a history with self-exclusion. 

When it came to AML, the UKGC found Aspire Global’s procedures to be “too reliant” on financial thresholds.

A customer hitting a medium, medium/high or high AML risk score was not enough to guarantee a manual Enhanced Customer Due Diligence (ECDD) check. An additional financial trigger needed to be hit first.

Similarly, even when this financial threshold was met and exceeded, the UKGC added that there was a significant delay in the ECDD checks’ implementation. One extreme example mentioned an ECDD review being conducted a week later after the alert. 

John Pierce, UKGC Director of Enforcement and Intelligence, commented: “This case marks the second occasion that this operator has been subject to enforcement action. Its failure to uphold anti-money laundering standards, delays in necessary interventions, and deficiencies in social responsibility measures are wholly unacceptable.

“Today’s outcome underscores the gravity of these breaches. It is essential that operators not only implement and maintain robust anti-money laundering policies, procedures, and controls but also act swiftly and decisively in response to any indications of suspicious activity. Effective social responsibility measures must be in place at all times to ensure that consumers identified as at risk receive timely and appropriate intervention.

“This case stands as a clear warning to all operators that repeated regulatory failings will result in increasingly stringent enforcement action.”

In addition to the aggravating factors, Aspire Global reminded that UKGC’s conclusion has also been affected by some mitigating factors. 

These clarify that an action plan was implemented to remove the failings and fully mitigate customer risk following the UKGC’s assessment. There was also full cooperation with the investigation by the operator. And finally, a third-party audit was appointed to ensure all AML and safer gambling compliance is met.