The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has disclosed it handed a £1.8m fine to land-based casino Silverbond Enterprises Limited for social responsibility (SR) and money laundering (ML) failings.
Silverbond Enterprises were found to be failing following a UKGC investigation into its Park Lane Club in Mayfair, London.
On top of the monetary fine, the firm also received an operator licence warning and had additional conditions added to its license.
The investigation uncovered Silverbond failed to recognise indicators of potential problem gambling scenarios.
Situations included: a customer displaying violent behaviour which included threatening staff and damaging of property, a customer asking for his winnings to be transferred to his personal bank account to prevent him playing further and a customer of the casino asking to increase the maximum amount that could be deposited by cheque.
The regulator’s report said: “the operator was required to complete full enhanced due diligence on its top 250 customers within its customer profiling system.
“It became apparent that sufficient EDD had not been completed both the initial inspections in January and March 2018 and from a subsequent review of the current top 250 customers.
“Following the commencement of the review an assessment of Silverbond’s top 25 depositing customers revealed at least half required EDD checks.
“Many of these customers were long standing customers of the casino and, in some instances, this was the first time evidence of EDD had been requested or obtained other than information obtained from open source/third party providers.”
Money laundering failings included the operator’s compliance procedures not detailing how anti-money laundering policies were to be implemented and failing to carry out enhanced due diligence on 61 customers.
