UKGC Revoked IMME’s Licence for AML Non-compliance

Licence of IMME was revoked by the UK Gambling Commission for not complying with the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws and certain social responsibility failures. 

An investigation by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) revealed loopholes in the AML system of International Multi Media Entertainments (IMME) and social responsibility failures. 

IMME is a man-baed operator that runs “Lotteries.com” (a betting site), and had its licence suspended back in March 2020 by the Gambling Commission. Reports revealed that the authority had concerns about the way it conducted business in the region. 

The investigation further revealed “significant suitability, social responsibility and money laundering failures.”

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Suitability concerns include client complaints about repeated calls from IMME agents. The gambling platform was also accused of targeting the elderly in general. Around 75% of the customers were above 65 years of age, whereas another 20% of the clients were 80 years old. 

The age issue seemed to penetrate every concern including IMME’s failure toward social responsibility. The investigation’s main concern was over IMME’s non-compliance with the anti-money laundering (AML) requirements. It failed to obtain the evidence of the source of funds of a 100-year-old customer’s sizable deposits that doubled from September to October 2018. 

“We will not tolerate gambling businesses behaving in the way IMME did. Gambling operators in Britain must follow our social responsibility and anti-money laundering rules, and a failure to do this will lead to us taking tough action. There is no room in Britain’s gambling industry for operators who fail in the way IMME have”, says Helen Venn, Gambling Commission Executive Director.

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