The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced it has levied a fine of £19.2 million against William Hill Group for what it described as "social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures." The fine is the largest ever issued by the UKGC and William Hill Group has agreed to pay the fine in settlement of a long list of problems that led the UKGC to give "serious consideration" to suspending William Hill's operator's license.
The £19.2M fine (about USD $23.6M) covers behaviors found to be in violation at three WHG entities. WHG (International) Limited, the parent of williamhill.com, will pay £12.5 million. Mr Green Limited, which runs mrgreen.com, will pay £3.7 million. William Hill Organization Limited, which operates 1,344 gambling shops and kiosks across Britain, will pay £3 million.
"When we launched this investigation the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming serious consideration was given to licence suspension," said Andrew Rhodes, Gambling Commission chief executive. "However, because the operator immediately recognised their failings and worked with us to swiftly implement improvements, we instead opted for the largest enforcement payment in our history."
The UKGC summary listed numerous described failures in both the social-responsibility and anti-money-laundering categories, with some crossover. Most of the social-responsibility issues occurred with newly established accounts, on a few occasions allowing new customers to wager tens of thousands of pounds almost immediately without performing checks.
