Three William Hill-owned betting firms to pay record £19.2m penalty

WHG (International) Limited, which runs williamhill.com, will pay £12.5m, Mr Green Limited, which runs mrgreen.com, will pay £3.7m and William Hill Organization Limited, which operates 1,344 gambling premises across Britain, will pay £3m.

Today’s action comes just a week after the Commission fined two operators owned by Kindred Group plc a combined £7.2m and is the largest enforcement case taken on by the regulator. The previous largest was £17m action taken against Entain in August last year.

The Commission found several failures to guard against the possibility of money laundering, with multiple customers being able to deposit large amounts of money without the business conducting the required Source of Funding checks.

One person was able to bet and lose a total of £70,134 in just a month, while another was able to deposit £73,535 on top of losing £14,068 in four months.

Andrew Rhodes, Gambling Commission chief executive, said: “When we launched this investigation the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming serious consideration was given to licence suspension.

“However, because the operator immediately recognised their failings and worked with us to swiftly implement improvements, we instead opted for the largest enforcement payment in our history.”

“In the last 15 months we have taken unprecedented action against gambling operators, but we are now starting to see signs of improvement. There are indications that the industry is doing more to make gambling safer and reducing the possibility of criminal funds entering their businesses.

“Operators are using algorithms to spot gambling harms or criminal risk more quickly, interacting with consumers sooner, and generally having more effective policies and procedures in place.”

A spokesperson for 888 commented: “The settlement relates to the period when William Hill was under the previous ownership and management. After William Hill was acquired, the company quickly addressed the identified issues with the implementation of a rigorous action plan.

“The entire Group shares the GC’s commitment to improve compliance standards across the industry and we will continue to work collaboratively with the regulator and other stakeholders to achieve this.”