The UK Gambling Commission has announced that it has agreed a regulatory settlement with Lindar Media Limited in relation to social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failures at the company’s online gambling operations.
According to the UKGC statement, Lindar Media, which trades as Mr Q and runs MrQ.com, will pay a settlement of £690,947 ($853,759/€798,570) following the commission’s investigation.
The investigation revealed:
- Insufficient implementation of AML policies, procedures and controls
- Deficiencies in responsible gambling policies, procedures, controls and practices
- Inadequate reporting for key events
- Head of Regulatory Compliance occupied other management posts without Commission’s approval
- Failure to carry out marketing in a socially responsible manner
- No annual contribution to support research, prevention and treatment for those harmed by gambling.
Some examples of breaches found by the Commission included:
- All customers automatically assigned as low-risk for money laundering without adequate profiling of individuals
- Multiple customers allowed to deposit and lose £10,000 ($12,356/€11,556) in a short space of time without triggering an interaction
The Commission also found that on two occasions the Lindar ran ads that could appeal to minors.
On June 29th, 2022 the company ran a MrQ ad on Reddit that featured an image of three Spiderman cartoon figures. Then on August 3rd, 2022 MrQ.com featured cartoon imagery that was not restricted by a gateway. This imagery was in relation to King Kong cash pots, Piggy Bank Bills and The Doghouse Megaways.
The Commission determined that in both instances, the license holder had failed to market its products in a socially responsible way.
So far in 2023, gambling regulators across the globe have issued a total of £311,713,335 ($385,358,776/€360,378,609) in fines and penalties.
According to the latest UK gambling statistics, the 16-24 year old age bracket shows the highest prevalence of problem gambling with 1% of gamblers this age reporting having issues.
Based in London, Natasha is a former sports journalist with experience working for some of the biggest athletes & brands in the world of sports and iGaming.