William Hill to Pay £19M for Social Responsibility and AML Failings
The Gambling Commission has fined William Hill Group Businesses £19 million for failing to uphold social responsibility and Anti Money Laundering (AML) standards.
WHG (International) Limited will pay £12.5M, whilst Mr Green Limited will pay £3.7M. Additionally, William Hill Organisation Limited—running 1,344 gambling premises across Britain— will pay a total of £3 million.
Gambling Commission Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes said: “When we launched this investigation the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming serious consideration was given to licence suspension.
“However, because the operator immediately recognised their failings and worked with us to swiftly implement improvements, we instead opted for the largest enforcement payment in our history.”
The Gambling Commission has finalised 26 enforcement lawsuits requiring the operators to pay more than £76 million for non-compliance since the start of 2022.
According to Rhodes, “In the last 15 months, we have taken unprecedented action against gambling operators, but we are now starting to see signs of improvement. There are indications that the industry is doing more to make gambling safer and reduce the possibility of criminal funds entering their businesses.
“Operators are using algorithms to spot gambling harms or criminal risk more quickly, interacting with consumers sooner, and generally having more effective policies and procedures in place.”
The regulatory settlement mandates that all £19.2M to be allocated towards socially responsible causes. Other licence conditions would be added to assure that a business board member supervises an improvement plan and the third party audits it to check if it is implementing AML and gambling policies as well as controls effectively.
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