While the wait goes on for the UK Government to reform the gambling laws, William Hill has been fined £19.2 million. It’s the latest penalty imposed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) as they become increasingly stricter.
The Conservative party stated in their manifesto for the 2019 General Election that they’d reform the Gambling Act 2005. Even though they won a landslide victory, the Tories still haven’t published their White Paper on gambling reform.
It’s something that has to happen to bring the current legislation into the digital age. Since 2005, the gambling industry has seen dramatic changes. The internet has arrived and gamblers can bet at online casinos 24/7. Introducing reforms that deal with these sites is long overdue.
In the meantime, the UKGC have been taking action against the gambling companies they have issued licences to. “It’s already a difficult time for the UK gambling industry. There’s uncertainty about what the government has in store for us. Planning for the future isn’t easy when you don’t know what the gambling laws are going to be” – said spokesperson of BritishGambler.
The economic climate still isn’t promising, so being fined millions of pounds isn’t helpful at all. It doesn’t help the balance sheet and the share price may well struggle too.
Why was William Hill fined a record £19.2 million? The UKGC discovered breaches of rules regarding social responsibility and anti-money laundering procedures. Those are the failings that have led to several UK gambling companies being issued with fines.
It’s hardly a small amount that the UKGC licence holders have been fined. The last 15 months has seen the UKGC issue 26 fines, totalling £76 million. Several of the top online casinos have received fines and the previous record was the £17 million that Entain were ordered to pay.
There are three different sections of the William Hill business that have been ordered to make payments. Their online business must pay the lion share with a £12.5 million payment to make. The Mr Green site has to pay £3.7 million with the remaining £3 million being paid by their retail arm.
William Hill has 1,355 betting shops and has been a hugely popular brand in the UK gambling industry for many decades. There was a change of ownership last year with 888 Holdings purchasing the non-US assets of the company for £1.95 billion. William Hill had been sold to American gambling company Caesars Entertainment but they then decided to sell the non-US assets.
During the process of the deal with 888 Holdings, William Hill feared a future fine and put aside £15 million. That’s probed to be a under-estimate of £4 million.
Andrew Rhodes is the chief executive of the UKGC. He said that the failings discovered “were so widespread and alarming serious consideration was given to licence suspension.”
One customer was allowed to spend £23,000 in just 20 minutes. The UKGC investigation also found that no checks were made by William Hill when other customers spent huge amounts with one gambling £32,500 over two days.
Even more concerning was the fact that 331 customers had been self-excluded at Mr Green but then allowed to register with William Hill. When it came to anti-money laundering, it was found that William Hill allowed one customer to lose £70,134 in a month without attempting to find out if they could afford such losses.
The failings took place under the previous ownership and the new owners say that they “quickly addressed the identified issues with the implementation of a rigorous action plan.” This response led to the UKGC deciding to issue a record fine rather than suspend their license.
March was a busy month for the UKGC. They also ordered 32Red Limited and Platinum Gaming Limited £7.1 million. The two companies are part of the Kindred Group plc. Again it was social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings that led to the fines.
32Red Limited, which runs 32red.com were ordered to pay £4.19 million with Platinum Gaming Limited having to pay £2.93 million. The latter runs Unibet.co.uk, another popular online gambling site.
More fines may well be issued in the future by the UKGC. The issues that they are most concerned with are likely to be part of the UK Government White Paper on gambling reform.
One measure that is highly likely to be included is stricter affordability checks. This would see more evidence having to be supplied by customers to prove they can afford to wager the amounts they are spending.
This could cause problems though with customers who haven’t got a problem with their gambling. They may well leave sites and head for the unregulated black market. That would see them receiving less customer support, hit the finances of regulated sites and see gambling tax revenues fall.
