Great Britain may be experiencing no slight political turmoil, but the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is still very much on the job, enforcing social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) policies. Late last week, the Commission issued a £672,000 ($759,000 USD) to NSUS Limited, the operator of GG Poker for a variety of social responsibility failings.
GG Poker’s main offense, according to a report posted on the UKGC website, occurred when the company sent promotional emails to 125 self-excluded customers. Problem gamblers can easily be triggered by the prospect of a good promotional wager and the Commission watches for this kind of thing very closely.
“Social responsibility failures included failing to identify customers who may be at risk of experiencing harms associated with gambling, and failing to interact with customers who may be at risk of experiencing harms associated with gambling,” the Commission noted in its report on the incident.
GG Poker was also cited for unspecified AML violations which the Commission described as, “Anti-money laundering failures included failing to conduct adequate risk assessments of the business being used for money laundering and terrorist financing, and failing to ensure they have appropriate policies, procedures and controls to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.”
NSUS Limited was issued a warning by the Commission but was allowed to retain its UK gambling license. The UKGC has been very active over the past couple of years and increased its enforcement and penalty duties. This comes despite the fact that political upheaval in the UK has postponed the release of a long-awaited review of British gaming policy, which will likely bring significant operational changed for UK-facing operatives.