The Gambling Commission has ordered 888-owned William Hill to pay a record £19.2m settlement for multiple social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.
Three gambling businesses operated by Hills will pay the penalty for the “widespread and alarming” breaches.
WHG (International) Limited, which runs williamhill.com, will pay £12.5m, while Mr Green Limited, which runs mrgreen.com, will pay £3.7m.Finally, William Hill Organisation Limited, which operates 1,344 gambling premises across Britain, will pay £3m.
“When we launched this investigation the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming that serious consideration was given to licence suspension,” said Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes.
“However, because the operator immediately recognised its failings and worked with us to swiftly implement improvements, we instead opted for the largest enforcement payment in our history.”
A long list of failures
Failures identified by the regulator included allowing one customer to open a new account and spend £23,000 in 20 minutes, all without any checks.
Another social responsibility failure saw the operator fail to conduct any checks while allowing a different customer to open an account and spend £18,000 in 24 hours.
At Mr Green, a customer was able to open a new account and spend £32,500 over two days, also without any checks.
Moreover, 331 customers were allowed to gamble on William Hill’s flagship site despite having already self-excluded from Mr Green.
The UKGC also found several AML failures, including cases where customers were allowed to deposit large amounts without the business conducting the appropriate checks.
UKGC CEO Andrew Rhodes: “When we launched this investigation the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming that serious consideration was given to licence suspension.”
The UKGC said one customer was able to spend and lose £70,134 in a month, while another deposited £73,535 and lost £14,068 in four months.
The Commission also criticised that customers were able to stake large amounts of money without being monitored or scrutinised to a “high enough standard”.
The operator failed to request Source of Funds (SoF) evidence when one customer staked £19,000 in a single bet, did not obtain documentation from a customer who staked £39,324 and lost £20,360 in 12 days, and did not obtain SoF evidence from a customer who staked £276,942 and lost £24,395 over two months.
The William Hill companies also failed to provide sufficient AML training to staff in the eyes of the regulator, while policies, procedures and controls lacked guidance on appropriate action to take following the results of customer profiling.
William Hill reaction
An 888 spokesperson referred to the historical nature of the failings and 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 Gambling Commission’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.”
888 spokesperson: “After William Hill was acquired, the company quickly addressed the identified issues with the implementation of a rigorous action plan.”
Under the settlement, the business will also need to adhere to additional licence conditions to ensure a board member oversees an improvement plan and undergoes a third-party audit to assess that it is effectively implementing its AML and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls.
Indeed, the UKGC’s review was conducted into William Hill while it was under previous ownership at US casino giant Caesars Entertainment.
When 888 bought Hills from Caesars, a clause was included in the deal that saw it indemnified against the outcome of the review.
Caesars agreed to accept liability for any licence suspension imposed by the Gambling Commission, or for any licence conditions up to a limit of £78m.
William Hill had also set aside £15m towards the penalty from its own accounts before being bought by 888.
Unprecedented action
Today’s action comes just a week after the UKGC fined two operators owned by Kindred Group a combined £7.2m and is the largest enforcement case taken on by the regulator.
The previous record was a £17m settlement paid by Entain in August last year.
Since the start of 2022 the UKGC has concluded 26 enforcement cases, with operators paying over £76m due to regulatory failures.
Rhodes said: “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.”
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*This article has been amended as our initial coverage mistakenly described the £19.2m regulatory settlement as a fine.
