Betway forced to pay £11.6million after money laundering failings

Betway is one of the most well-known names in the industry, but the gambling operator has been forced to pay out £11.6 million after it was found they had failed in their responsibility to protect customers from gambling related harm and numerous money laundering failures.

VIP customer checks

Gambling operators are required to carry out specific checks when it comes to player identity and money laundering. This is particularly essential when it comes to VIP players who are often depositing large sums, and operators are supposed to carry out thorough ‘source of funds’ checks to be sure the money used isn’t from any illegal activity or process of crimes. It was found that Betway had failed on numerous accounts; in one instance, they failed to carry out sufficient source of funds checks for a VIP player who deposited over £8million and lost over £4million over four years.

On another occasion, a player was allowed to deposit £187,000 in just two days without Betway carrying out social responsibility interactions with them.

Payment in lieu of financial penalty

The payment of £11.6million is being made instead of an official penalty and will be used to reduce the amount of gambling related harm within the industry. £5.8million of this money will go towards the victims of crime.

This payment comes just 3 weeks after another operator, Mr Green, was also asked to pay £3million after it was found that they too, failed in their duty of care both towards customers and in their checks for money laundering. Again, there were serious failing when it came to players being allowed to deposit large sums of money without passing the appropriate and required source of funds checks.

Betway’s commitment

Betway have since committed to carrying out a review of all its active UK customers who have not been reviewed in the last six months, an independent review of all its policies and procedures, and a full assessment of its top 25 depositing players to verify their source of funds and check if the processes are robust enough.

They will also review any high risk players and take on any changes or improvements that could be made. Betway will also ensure that all members of control staff, license holders and senior managers, undertake specialist out-of-house training in Social Responsibility and Anti-Money Laundering.