Online sports betting operator 10Bet will pay a £620,000 settlement for AML and social responsibility failings identified by the UK Gambling Commission. 

The settlement, in lieu of a financial penalty, was agreed with Blue Star Planet Limited, which runs the 10bet-branded sportsbook in the licensed UK marketplace.

The multiple failings occurred between November 2019 and June 2021. An investigation and subsequent review found that 10Bet had failed to comply with several licensing conditions.

These included failings in the operator’s implementation of AML procedures, deficiencies in its responsible gambling policies, procedures, controls and practices, and weaknesses in its reporting arrangements with the Commission.

With regards to AML, Blue Star accepted that the financial controls in place to automatically limit the amount that customers were able to deposit were set too high.

It further acknowledged the financial limits put in place before triggering an AML risk alert were also set too high.

The Commission ruled that customers were able to deposit significant amounts of money in a short period of time before satisfactory risk profiling could occur.

In another breach, the regulator discovered that customers were able to gamble at “high velocity” before automated restrictions were applied to their accounts.

There were also instances where Source of Funds information should have been requested from the customer earlier on in the relationship.

Elsewhere, a link to the company’s current licensed status as recorded on the UKGC’s website was broken, which also constitutes a licence breach. This was immediately corrected, however, according to 10Bet.

The full list of failings can be accessed here. The payment will go towards social responsibility causes.

For the Commission, aggravating factors included the serious nature of the breaches and the fact that Blue Star’s senior management should have been aware of the governance issues that led to the breaches.

However, mitigating factors included the extent of the steps taken by the licensee to remedy the breach, as well as the early recognition of its failings and its cooperation throughout the investigation and subsequent review.

This is the fourth regulatory settlement imposed by the Gambling Commission in 2023, with fines and settlements for the year-to-date totalling more than £7.5m. The bulk of that figure was a £6.1m fine for InTouch games, however.