Mr Green Fined for Money Laundering and Responsible Gambling

Mr Green, the William Hill-owned operator, has been issued two separate warnings and penalty fees by the Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen. The fees total SEK31.5 million (€3.1 million) and are in relation to KYC, AML, and responsible gambling failures.

The operator received a SEK30 million penalty for failures in its duty of care concerning responsible gambling and a SEK 1.5 million penalty for failures in its anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) responsibilities.

Spelinspektionen received complaints about Mr Green in November 2019 that led to a review of its AML measures and, in particular, 15 customer accounts. Many of the customers had been reported to the financial police by the operator, which Spelinspektionen said is an indication that Mr Green has suspicions about money laundering.

A number of customers making deposits of more than SEK1 million were investigated, including one who had deposited SEK39.3 million and lost a total of SEK3.2 million but had barely declared enough income to cover the year’s losses.

There were five customers audited in relation to the operator’s responsible gambling measures. Mr Green had attempted to contact all of the customers. However, one of these customers was found to have made multiple deposits a day on various occasions and reportedly lost more than their announced taxable income for several years, which according to Spelinspektionen, is a sign that they are at high risk of gambling-related harm.

The account was closed in July 2020, as were a number of other accounts in relation to responsible gambling measures. However, Spelinspektionen ruled that the operator had not had sufficient contact with customers with high deposit limits to ensure that they were playing responsibly.

Mr Green has since implemented new procedures to deal with both money laundering and responsible gambling. Nonetheless, Spelinspektionen has warned that if there are repeated failures in the future, then the operator may lose its Swedish license.