The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has sanctioned White Hat Gaming for inadequate safe gambling policies and AML procedures.
The sanctions come in the wake of an investigation into the operator’s handling of customer losses on several of its sites including hellocasino.com, grandivy.com, dreamvegas.com, and 21casino.com.
The UKGC investigation revealed that the operator failed to look identify the source of funds for one customer. This particular customer managed to gamble and lose £70K over the course of the three months.
Other issues included the company’s failure to prevent overspending and to place limits on accounts that incur heavy losses over a short period of time. Two cases highlighted by the UKGC showed one customer losing £50k in six hours while another lost £85k in just over an hour.
As a result of the investigation, White Hat Gaming has agreed to pay a settlement of £1.3 million in lieu of a fine and has committed to improving its safe gambling policies and procedures.
In a statement the UKGC said that:
“White Hat Gaming has cooperated with our investigations in the course of the investigation and our assessment has led to the operator overhauling its approach to social responsibility and the prevention of money laundering”
Asked for a comment on the investigation and the sanctions, UKGC executive director Richard Watson said:
“Through our compliance and enforcement activity we will continue our work to raise standards in the industry and continue to hold failing operators to account.”
The UKGC has reported that the money paid by White Hat Gaming will be used to fund the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms.
Ciaran has been working within the Gambling Industry as a deep analyst since 2019. His deep knowledge and understanding of all the gambling regulations, and processes makes him a true asset, and an always valuable point of view for Gambling Industry News, allowing us to cover every topics from a brand new perspective.