Online gambling operator Greentube Alderney Ltd, trading as Admiral Casino, has been fined £1million for failing to meet anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility standards.

January’s fine, which covers breaches between September 2022 and June 2023, is the second time the e-gambling business has faced regulatory action, having previously been told to pay £625,000 by the UK’s Gambling Commission in 2021 for similar failings.

John Pierce, the Commission’s Director of Enforcement, said: “This case arose from a follow-up compliance assessment designed to ensure the operator had continued to apply lessons learned from previous regulatory action.

“While we noted that the business had made significant general improvements, further regulatory breaches were still identified. The operator was subsequently required to swiftly put in place an effective action plan designed to remedy all of the identified failings.”

According to a report on the Gambling Commission’s website, Admiral’s social responsibility failures included:

• Not fully implementing its own policy aimed at ensuring customer limits are based on regular, sustainable income.
• Not fully implementing its own processes aimed at ensuring documents customers supplied were genuine.
• Not fully implementing its controls to identify indicators of vulnerability or potential harm in a timely manner.

AML failings included:  

• Not always scrutinising available information upon receipt, or in a timely manner, leading to an avoidable delay in the identification and potential escalation of money laundering and/or terrorist financing risks.
• Not always following its own policy regarding what it refers to as “risky occupations”.
• Not always fully investigating and escalating accounts showing apparent links to other accounts in a timely manner leading to an avoidable delay in investigating, escalating and acting to mitigate the potential risk of accounts being potentially funded or controlled by a different account holder.

Examples cited by the regulator included one customer provided a bank statement showing complex and unusual transactions – including over £100,000 being transferred in and out of the account and a negative closing balance – yet the statement only being scrutinised and escalated four months later.

The operator was also found to have failed to consider and escalate an account featuring the same address and surname as another customer (whose account was blocked) who was known to have convictions for the supply of class A drugs.

“We want to remind all operators that any business found to breach rules designed to keep gambling safe and free from crime for a second time should expect increasingly stringent enforcement action,” said Pierce.

“Any failure to uphold anti-money laundering standards is unacceptable, and today’s action reflects the gravity of the breaches identified.

“We will continue to monitor this operator to ensure they consistently meet the required regulatory standards,” he said.

The operator, which runs admiralcasino.co.uk, will pay the money to socially responsible causes as part of a settlement with the Commission.

Read the Gambling Commission’s full public statement here.

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