Greentube, the Novomatic-owned iGaming division, has been fined £1 million for serious social responsibility and anti-money laundering regulatory failures.
Trading as Admiral Casino, this is the second time that Greentube has been sanctioned by the UK’s Gambling Commission (UKGC) for compliance breaches.
In 2021 the Guernsey, Channel Islands-based iCasino was fined £685,000 by the commission for identical failures.
The operator has agreed to pay the penalty to social causes, in agreement with the UKGC.
Announcing the sanction yesterday, the commission reported that Greentube had not been following its own policy of protecting its players from unsustainable betting spend.
Greentube had failed to investigate the authenticity of documents, bank statements and proof-of-address, stated the UKGC.
Money Laundering
Anti-money laundering failures included one customer transacting over £100,000 in a suspicious seesaw of deposit and withdrawal from an account that was only scrutinised after four-months of activity.
“In one example the operator [Greentube Alderney] failed to consider and escalate an account featuring the same address and surname as another customer (whose account was blocked) who was known to have convictions for the supply of class A drugs,” the UKGC revealed in its report.
“This case arose from a follow-up compliance assessment designed to ensure the operator had continued to apply lessons learned from previous regulatory action,” said John Pierce, UKGC Director of Enforcement.
“While we noted that the business had made significant general improvements, further regulatory breaches were still identified.
“We want to remind all operators that any business found to breach rules designed to keep gambling safe and free from crime for a second time should expect increasingly stringent enforcement action.
“Any failure to uphold anti-money laundering standards is unacceptable, and today’s action reflects the gravity of the breaches identified.
“We will continue to monitor this operator to ensure they consistently meet the required regulatory standards.”
