Great britain Gambling Commission (UKGC) is telling gaming operators to take a close look at their anti-money laundering policies after finding that at least one major operator had holes in their own policies.

The UKGC found that the Rank Group had weaknesses in its own anti-money laundering procedures, particularly at their Grosvenor Casinos.

Grosvenor Failed to appear Into Source of Wealth

The issue with Grosvenor Casinos dealt having a former clients, Da Feng Ding, who was simply convicted of money laundering and recently sentenced to four years in jail as a result.

At one of their casinos, Ding may have been Grosvenor’s customer that is biggest between 2008 and 2011.

The problem, in line with the UKGC, had been that Grosvenor must have at least been dubious about the origin of Ding’s endless wealth.

Despite the proven fact that Ding had no obvious supply of income, casino officials did little or nothing to try to verify the source of his funds, even after he invested sums that must have triggered Grosvenor’s accountable gambling policies, which it appears were never enacted by casino staff.

Grosvenor additionally didn’t properly report the nature that is suspicious of’s play to law enforcement agencies, something needed under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Ding ultimately self-excluded himself from the organization’s casinos last year, stating that he needed to control their gambling.

Comparable Issues at Meccabingo.com

The Rank Group was also cited for their handling of an event involving Meccabingo.com, a product that is part of the Rank Digital Group.

An unnamed customer (known as ‘Customer B’ in the UKGC investigation) recently pleaded guilty to defrauding her employer out of thousands of British pounds, then gambling a comparable sum on Meccabingo.com.

According to your UKGC, the customer played on the website from 2011 through December 2014, when she was arrested november.

Exactly What began as low-stakes play suddenly increased beginning in May 2012, staying at or above £5,000 ($7,700) an up until the time of her arrest month.

The UKGC said that Rank Digital did not properly monitor the client’s dubious play or make anti-money that is appropriate checks during her time on the website.

In fact, they instead treated her very well: given the money she was spending, they treated Consumer B as a highly-valued player, rewarding her having a visit to Las Vegas in October 2013 and a cruise in late 2014, just before her arrest.

Rank Surrenders Profits from Overlooked Issues

Given the potency of the evidence that they had failed in their responsibilities and agreed to surrender £950,000 ($1.46 million) that the company made in profits from their anti-money laundering oversights against them, Rank acknowledged.

The organization also says so it will undergo an audit that is independent of procedures.

The UKGC is also utilising the Rank Group cases to send a wider message to gambling operators in regards to the significance of combating money laundering, asking companies to have a closer glance at their responsibilities while making certain they are checking into regular customers who are investing suspiciously large quantities of money in their casinos, betting shops or sites.

In particular, the commission asked operators to ensure that their spending could lead to investigations, and asked that gambling companies consider whether they were only providing information as ‘cover’ in order to continue relationships with suspicious clients that they are not tipping off customers by warning them.

‘The Commission is bringing to your attention of all operators the need to just take an approach that is critical assessing their own policies and procedures and, crucially, whether they have been being followed and remain fit for purpose, to avoid creating a false sense of security,’ the UKGC stated.