Stride Gaming subsidiary, Daub Alderney, has been found guilty on charges of omitting to prevent money laundering and will have to abide the decision made by United Kingdom Gaming Commission that will make them pay a hefty financial fine.

UKGC requests a penalty of £7.1 million to be paid by Stride, a big and long-standing online bingo operator. They also stand accused of failing at protecting their most vulnerable of players.

Result of the Ongoing Investigation:

UKGC has announced some time ago that they have launched a full scale investigation of the entire online casino sector, with bingo sites brought into spotlight.

In fact, the official notice published by the UK’s major regulatory body states that “operator’s standards did not match the protections required and the fine reflects the seriousness of these lapses.”

UKGC has already issued a warning to Daub in October 2017, citing the risk assessment that was not in place. In January this year, the regulatory commission has informed the operator that their operating license is being reviewed.

A few months later, in April, their case was brought towards the Commission’s Regulatory Panel that was to bring the final decision on the matter. The decision was that Daub has “breached the conditions of its license relating to anti-money laundering measures and failed to comply with social responsibility” and general codes of conduct and business practice.

The Long List of Oversights:

The details of Panel’s investigation that led to the decision of penalizing operators read that they found the licensee “not conducting appropriate monitoring of a business relationship.” They also did not apply appropriate risk-sensitive policies and procedures that would prevent money laundering activities.

Daub also did not keep the record of the evidence and documents needed for customer diligence checks. It is also considered that their staff were not sufficiently nor appropriately trained in ways of recognizing and dealing with suspicious activities.

In the end, the Panel “agreed that it was appropriate to impose a financial penalty under section 121 of the Act and (…) concluded that it was appropriate for the Licensee to pay a financial penalty of £7,100,000 and that this was a proportionate outcome.”

They’ve also vowed to “continue its review of the effectiveness and implementation of its anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility (SR) policies and procedures.”

Daub Alderney did not give a detailed response to this fine, but have confessed that there have been errors on their behalf and have agreed to pay the penalty.

Source: “Daub Alderney to pay 7.1m fine for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures” UK Gambling Commission. November 13, 2018.

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