Maple International Ventures Limited has been ordered to pay a £360,000 fine following a probe by the Gambling Commission.
The operator which runs the popular online casino Lottomart will pay the financial penalty as part of a regulatory settlement after an investigation discovered failings in its social responsibility and anti-money laundering controls.
The Gambling Commission revealed the money will be directed to socially responsible causes. The settlement followed a compliance assessment and subsequent review of Maple’s remote operating licence.
The Commission said the operator “has an unblemished regulatory history” and added they “swiftly put in place an action plan designed to remedy the failings and provided updates, fully co-operated with the investigation and provided information by agreed deadlines, and accepted the failings at an appropriately early stage in the investigation.”
Maple International Ventures ‘failed to comply’ with certain licence conditions and codes of practice, specifically relating to the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing as well as remote customer interaction.
The regulator concluded that Maple’s risk assessment was not appropriate between June 2023 and July 2024 with a number of key risks omitted from its risk assessment such as organised crime gangs and mule accounts. There were also weaknesses in its customer monitoring systems.
Another concern raised by the regulator was delays in enforcing financial thresholds, which meant customers whose identities had not been fully verified were able to continue transacting beyond the financial threshold that had been set for undertaking customer due diligence checks.
Failings in social responsibility measures were found, as Maple did not always ensure its policies, procedures and controls were effectively implemented. There were weaknesses in systems designed to identify duplicate and linked accounts.
The operator failed to correctly identify risky gambling behaviours as the controls for discovering potential harms were inadequate in relation to binges, spikes, overnight play and large wins which are followed by high-staking.
Joe Lyons is a betting industry writer for GamblingIndustryNews with years of experience on reputable gambling websites. Joe specialises in long form content in the world of sports betting and gambling. Joe is recognised as an expert in sports fields such as horse racing, soccer, NFL and NBA.
