SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has this morning charged TGP Europe Limited a penalty totalling £316,250 for failures in anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility measures.
The Isle of Man-based business, which manages a white-label network of 19 websites, including the sportsbook brands of Fun88, 12Bet, BK8 and Kaiyun, will also receive an official warning and face added conditions to its licence.
The social responsibility failures identified by the regulator include the operator’s inadequate response to customers who continued to play after triggering multiple safer gambling alerts.
TGP Europe relied on ‘automated interactions’ rather than customer care interventions when the alerts were triggered and failed to assess the ‘effectiveness of their interactions’ or consider further steps such as telephone calls.
The AML failures encompass several areas, such as inadequate risk assessments for money laundering and terrorist financing. The operator did not address risks, including false or stolen identification documentation, or carry out appropriate due diligence on ‘unusually large transactions’.
Further infringements saw TGP Europe also fail to consider and mitigate money laundering risks posed by its “business-to-business relationships” as the company had ineffective policies and procedures regarding due diligence conducted before entering into white-label agreements.
As a result, additional licence conditions have been imposed on TGP Europe Limited, requiring the company to take necessary actions to ensure thorough due diligence checks are performed in the future.
The UKGC concluded its statement by warning: “This case serves as a reminder to gambling operators of the importance of maintaining robust AML and social responsibility protocols to prevent potential breaches and protect their customers.”
