William Hill has become the target of the Gambling Commission’s ire but their £6.2 million fine for what is described as systemic social responsibility and money laundering failures is a warning to all of the betting industry that toleration of such behaviour will no longer be accepted.
An in-depth investigation by the Gambling Commission has revealed that, between November 2014 and August 2016, one of Britain’s leading bookmakers breached anti-money laundering regulations and largely ignored social responsibility guidelines. William Hill’s senior management failed to mitigate risks and to provide sufficient resources to ensure that processes for adhering to the regulations were effective.
Those failures are said to have resulted in 10 customers being allowed to deposit large sums of money linked to criminal offences which saw William Hill make more than £1.2 million while those funds were being ‘laundered’. One customer was allowed to deposit £654,000 over nine months without any checks being carried out and another ‘invested’ £541,000 over 14 months, with nothing more than a cursory conversation backing up his claim that he was making £365,000 a year in salary.
As a result of the investigation, William Hill will have to pay more than £5 million for breaching regulations and hand back the £1.2 million it earned from transactions with the 10 customers, regardless of the origin of the money. In addition, the bookmaker will also have to appoint external auditors to review the effectiveness and implementation of its anti-money laundering and social policies and procedures. It will also have to share findings with the industry as a whole.
Money laundering through bookmakers has become a huge problem for the legal system and this is a loud message that betting firms will pay heavily if they are found to be negligent in their duty to keep tabs on possible criminal activity. Betfred and Coral have also been taken to task by the Gambling Commission in recent times and it’s being made clear that operating licenses are on the line if transgressions continue.
