Rank Group to Pay $6.6M for Regulatory Failures in the UK

Rank Group, a leading casino company, is set to pay GBP 5 million ($6.6 million) as part of a settlement with the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). The payment is related to regulatory failures committed by the group’s casino brands. Rank Group’s AML and Social Responsibility Controls Were Found Lacking On October 7, the UKGC announced that Rank Group will pay the aforementioned sum due to failures tied to its Grosvenor Casinos Limited, Grosvenor Casinos (GC) Limited and Gaming Group Limited divisions. Collectively, these brands operate 51 land-based casinos across the UK. According to an investigation by the UKGC, Rank Group’s casinos committed several anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures, potentially exposing players to certain risks. The UKGC listed the AML-related failures, saying that the company had not updated its AML policies to reflect changes to the Money Laundering Regulations in 2020. In addition to that, Rank Group’s existing AML policies, procedures and controls allowed “inconsistent decisions to be applied to customers with elevated money laundering risk.” The group furthermore had some unclear policies, which caused inappropriate risk levels to be ascribed to high-risk customers and high-risk sources of funds being used by customers without sufficient oversight. Lastly, the UKGC determined that Rank Group was not always carrying out enhanced customer due diligence, even when its own policies required it to do so. In terms of social responsibility failures, the UKGC understood that Rank Group’s insufficient safer gambling interactions had led to a customer losing GBP 50,000 over a short period of time. In addition to that, the company did not have a record of any safer gambling interactions with a customer who won roughly GBP 260,000 and proceeded to lose GBP 250,000 in 12 days. The final instance of a social responsibility failure was when the company failed to carry out a safer gambling interaction with a formerly self-excluded customer, who lost GBP 25,000 shortly after their exclusion period ended. The UKGC Encouraged Operators to Avoid Committing the Same Mistakes As a result of the aforementioned violations, the UKGC required Rank Group to pay GBP 5 million ($6.6 million) to settle the matter. The money from the settlement will be directed to the Government’s Consolidated Fund. Sue Young, the UKGC’s director of operations, commented on the matter, saying that the current settlement shows that AML and social responsibility risks within the gaming industry continue to persist. Larger enforcement cases are often associated with online gambling but, as today’s announcement shows, the risks of anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures are equally alive in the land-based sector. Sue Young, director of operations, UKGC Young encouraged land-based operators to learn from this case and work harder to prevent costly mistakes.