UKGC Hits The Football Pools with £375,000 Fine
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has levied a fine of £375,000 against The Football Pools, one of the oldest betting entities in the United Kingdom.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The enforcement action came after the UKGC's investigation revealed that The Football Pools failed to comply with its licence requirements related to social responsibility and anti-money laundering from September 2022 to August 2023.
The commission identified several areas for improvement in The Pools' AML policy, including an over-reliance on financial triggers, inadequate hard stops, and delayed manual reviews.
Additionally, the operator's systems for identifying problem gamblers were found to be deficient, and there was no evidence of thorough evaluations of individual customer interactions.
According to the UKGC, The Football Pools also failed to create safer gambling risk profiles when financial warning signals were triggered, but instead, they delayed their completion for several months.
This case demonstrates that the Licensee's approach to anti-money laundering risk profiling and monitoring was insufficient, allowing high-risk customers to continue gambling before completing necessary enhanced due diligence checks. In addition, the Licensee was over-reliant on financial alerts that whilst preventing significant losses meant it failed to engage in a timely manner with some customers who were potentially experiencing other markers of gambling-related harm such as time spent gambling and high velocity spend.
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UKGC Stresses AML and Safer Gambling
The Football Pools has agreed to pay a £375,000 settlement to the UKGC to resolve the regulatory issue and avoid further action. As stated by the commission, the payment will be used to fund projects supporting social responsibility.
The UKGC urges operators to have strong processes and controls in place to prevent money laundering and promote safer gambling. Gambling firms must ensure they closely monitor customer activity, take immediate action when harm or illegal activity is suspected, and keep a record of the triggers for customer interventions.
While The Pools' penalty is substantial, it is lower compared to the fine issued against Corbett a week ago.
Like The Pools, Corbett Bookmakers, a well-established independent bookmaker in Wales and North West England, was found to have breached AML and SG licensing conditions.
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