UKGC HITS CASUMO WITH £6M FINE FOR NUMEROUS FAILURES

Online gambling operator Casumo has been hit with a £6M GBP fine, and ordered to undergo extensive auditing, by the UK Gambling Commission. 

The penalty relates to an investigation, carried out between October 2019 and January 2020, which found a series of social responsibility and financial procedural failures. Those failings included not interacting with problem gamblers, failing to check the source of funds properly, and inadequate documentation checks. 

Specific examples of customer interaction failures included:

• One customer losing £1.1m over three years without being subject to a responsible gambling interaction.
• A second customer losing £65,000 in one month without being subject to a responsible gambling interaction.
• A third customer losing £76,000 over seven months without being subject to a responsible gambling interaction.
• The operator not carrying out a responsible gambling interaction on a customer who lost £89,000 in a five hour period.
• The operator not carrying out a responsible gambling interaction on a customer who lost £59,000 in a 90 minute period.

Specific examples of anti-money laundering failings included:

• Customers were allowed to deposit significant sums of money without sufficient AML checks being conducted.
• Source of Funds (SOF) checks were insufficient. Payslips and invoices presented as evidence of SOF were not corroborated with bank statements (or other evidence).
• Bank statements produced were not assessed appropriately. Examples include incomplete bank statements which only showed credits into the customer’s account. The balance figures on a customer’s bank statement had been redacted.
• Inadequate checks of documentation for authenticity.
• No assessment or limit of how much a customer should be allowed to spend based on known income, wealth or any other risk factors.
• Winnings from other gambling operators were accepted as SOF, without further investigation.
• Not ensuring that its policies, procedures and controls were implemented effectively, kept under review, revised appropriately to ensure that they remain effective and take into account any applicable learning or guidelines published by the Commission from time to time.

Casumo says it acknowledges the Gambling Commission findings and “accepts its shortcomings in fully implementing and executing necessary measures.”

CEO, Shelly Suter-Hadad, who was hired last year due to her experience with compliance and operation control, said: “Since joining Casumo last year, my focus has been on putting in place a new senior leadership team and Personal Management Licence holders with extremely strong industry experience, and the knowledge and expertise to ensure we are a compliance-led business.

“In addition, recognising that key processes fell short in the past, I took immediate action to implement fundamental operational changes, so that Casumo is now a gaming group with compliance and responsible gambling at the heart of its business and culture.”

Richard Watson, Commission Executive Director, said: “This case was brought about through planned compliance activity and every operator out there should be aware that we will continue to take firm action against those who fail to raise standards.”

The operator will also be subject to extensive auditing by a firm of independent auditors, at its own expense. However, despite the penalty, Casumo has been allowed to keep its UK license, and the Gambling Commission has acknowledged there has been an improvement regarding policies and processes. 

Staying with the Gambling Commission, last week the regulator hit In Touch Games with a £3.4M fine for multiple social responsibility, money laundering, and marketing failures.