Mr Vegas parent Videoslots Limited has been ordered to pay £650,000 (US$852,580) following a UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) investigation that identified shortcomings in its anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls.
The operator, which runs videoslots.co.uk, mrvegas.com and megariches.com, has also received an official warning and must undergo a third-party audit to assess the effectiveness of its policies and procedures.
The Commission found that the company’s social responsibility processes relied heavily on automated systems that did not sufficiently monitor customer behaviour or detect potential indicators of gambling harm.
The investigation highlighted cases where customers were able to exceed their monthly deposit limits due to the system excluding initial deposits from automated limit calculations. Examples included customers losing between £5,000 and £7,500 (US$6,560 and US$9,840) over short periods despite lower deposit limits being in place.
Investigators also noted instances where at-risk customers were not flagged for interaction, including one who lost £6,550 (US$8,588) across three active days of play without receiving any contact from the operator.
Deficiencies
In relation to AML and counter-terrorist financing obligations, the commission reported deficiencies in Videoslots’ policies, procedures and record-keeping, as well as an over-reliance on an algorithm designed to identify high-risk activity.
In one case, a customer deposited more than £75,000 (US$98,330) in digital prepaid vouchers over 16-days and transferred gambling proceeds to multiple bank accounts, while also accessing the account from outside Great Britain.
Despite these red flags, the automated scoring system did not escalate the customer’s risk level or prompt timely source-of-funds checks.
Another example involved a customer making significant deposits and withdrawals over a month without their risk status being raised, with staff relying on assumptions that activity was funded by recycled winnings rather than conducting adequate scrutiny.
The UKGC stated that these combined issues contributed to delays in customer due diligence and insufficient oversight, prompting the financial penalty and the requirement for an independent audit.
AML Policies
John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, said: “Operators are required to have effective Social Responsibility and Anti-Money Laundering policies, procedures and controls as a condition of holding an operating licence. In this case, the operator’s monthly deposit limits were found to be ineffective when tested in practice and AML controls were not applied to the standards we expect.
“The investigation identified a serious example where pre-paid digital vouchers had been used for gambling without effective oversight and early intervention.
“The over-reliance on an algorithm to monitor risk meant that the customer was able to carry out a high volume of deposits and transfer the proceeds of gambling to multiple different destination accounts with insufficient and timely checks or robust source of funds verification taking place.
“Alongside this, the acceptance of digital vouchers as a method of payment also requires robust controls from a safer gambling perspective, particularly where it is possible to purchase digital vouchers using credit or crypto via third party websites.”
Concerns
Pierce continued: “Open-loop payment systems are high risk in nature because they could enable anonymous deposits and make it harder to trace funds. In this case, the licensee failed to implement timely customer interactions and did not conduct enhanced customer du e diligence until the customer had reached significant spend thresholds – such failings are unacceptable.
“Operators must review how open-loop payment systems such as prepaid digital vouchers are managed in a gambling environment because they are high risk and present operational challenges in terms of effective monitoring. Whilst our position on the use of open loop payment systems has not changed, we have updated our risk information on our website to reflect our concerns about digital vouchers.”
Any operators using similar digital card/digital payment schemes are required to report this to the UKGC as a key event immediately if they have not already done so.
Operators are also advised to read Emerging money laundering and terrorist financing risks from October 2025.
Added Pierce: “Alongside the financial penalty and the necessary steps already taken by Videoslots to address our findings, the operator must also complete an independent audit and we will monitor the outcome of this closely.”
You can read the full ruling here: Videoslots Limited full penalty.
