Gambling Companies with the Highest UKGC Fines

Although William Hill is widely considered to be a trusted British betting brand thanks to a long and proud history in the industry, the company received the highest fine ever from the UKGC. In 2023, the company was ordered to pay a record fine totalling £19.2 million for serious social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures across three of its betting businesses.

WHG (International) Limited - the operator of the williamhill.com online betting site - was told to pay £12.5 million in the largest portion of the punishment. Mr Green Limited of mrgreen.com had to pay £3.7 million and William Hill Organization Limited, which runs the company's 1,344 gambling shops across Britain, had to pay £3 million under the collective UKGC punishment.

Andrew Rhodes, the chief executive of the Gambling Commission said in a statement that the failings that were uncovered as part of the investigation into William Hill "were so widespread and alarming serious consideration was given to licence suspension". He added: “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."

A customer who gambled online with William Hill was able to sign up for a new account and spend £23,000 in just 20 minutes, without any checks on them having been carried out.

Hundreds of people who had self-excluded from their accounts with Mr Green were also able to sign up for gambling activities with other parts of the business and continue to bet. Furthermore, a Mr Green customer deposited £73,535 into their online betting account and they lost a total of £14,068 in a period of four months without any appropriate checks conducted on them.

The £19.2 million was directed towards socially responsible purposes as part of the settlement.

It was the second time in five years that the company had been given a massive fine by the UKGC, having been ordered to pay a £6.2 million penalty over systemic social responsibility and money laundering failures in 2018. Between November 2014 and August 2016, the company was found to have breached anti-money laundering and social responsibility regulations.

One customer who lived in rental accommodation and earned about £30,000 a year was able to deposit £654,000 over nine months without any source of funds checks having been carried out.

The previous record fine from the UKGC was given out in 2022, when the owner of more than a dozen websites including ladbrokes.com, coral.co.uk and foxybingo.com was ordered to pay a total of £17 million for failures across its online and land-based businesses.

Of that amount, £3 million of the total fine was given out for failures at Entain's Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming Limited, the operator of more than 2,700 British gambling shops.

Social responsibility failures found as part of the investigation into Entain's practices included a customer who had been blocked from gambling with Coral due to having spent £60,000 in 12 months without providing proof of source of funds being able to immediately join Ladbrokes and deposit £30,000 in one day. An online customer who had deposited more than £230,000 and spent extended periods gambling overnight had been contacted by the company just once.

Andrew Rhodes, UKGC chief executive, pointed out in a statement that it was the second time the operator had "fallen foul of rules in place to make gambling safer and crime free".

He added: "They should be aware that we will be monitoring them very carefully and further serious breaches will make the removal of their licence to operate a very real possibility. We expect better and consumers deserve better."

Casino firm Caesars Entertainment was the recipient of a huge £13 million fine in 2020 thanks to systemic failings in its approach to gambling safely and anti-money laundering measures.

The company, which ran almost a dozen casino sites in Britain at the time of the punishment, had three of its senior managers give up their personal licences as a result of the investigation.

One customer was found to have lost a total of £323,000 during a 12-month period. They had shown signs of problem gambling including 30 sessions of more than five hours, but despite this they had received inadequate interaction from Caesars Entertainment staff in that time.

No adequate source of funds checks were carried out on another casino customer who was able to gamble around £3.5 million and lose £1.6 million of it over a period of just three months.

Neil McArthur, UKGC's chief executive at the time, said: "The failings in this case are extremely serious. A culture of putting customer safety at the heart of business decisions should be set from the very top of every company and Caesars failed to do this."

The full amount of the £13 million fine that was handed to Caesars Entertainment a few years ago was all directed towards delivering the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms.

Betway, which football fans will be familiar with thanks to the company being the shirt sponsor of Premier League side West Ham, has been given a fine in excess of £10 million from the UKGC.

The company was told to pay £11.6 million in total over social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings relating to how high spending customers were managed by the betting site. Betway did not carry out any source of funds checks on a VIP-level customer who had deposited more than £8 million and lost over half of that total during a four-year period.

UKGC's investigation into Betway found the firm allowed £5.8 million of money to go through the business which was "found, or could reasonably be suspected to be, proceeds of crime". Executive director at the Gambling Commission Richard Watson said in a statement released to announce the company's fine: "The actions of Betway suggest there was little regard for the welfare of its VIP customers or the impact on those around them."

The operator of gambling brands such as 888.com has twice been fined millions of pounds by the Gambling Commission over the past few years. Most recently, 888 UK Limited had to pay £9.4 million for various failings in handling vulnerable customers. That punishment came five years after it was ordered to pay a £7.8 million penalty package over similar failings.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many people turned to online gambling, an 888 UK Limited customer lost £37,000 over a six week period without any customer interactions.

Other social responsibility failures included an NHS worker who had informed the company they were earning £1,400 each month being given a monthly deposit cap just under that amount. Users were found to be able to deposit £40,000 before source of funds checks were carried out.

The firm behind the online operators 32Red Limited and Platinum Gaming Limited was told to pay a £7.1 million penalty over social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures in 2021.

32Red failed to implement measures described by the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer Regulations 2017). Platinum Gaming's anti-money laundering policies, procedures and controls were found by the UKGC investigation into Kindred Group activities to be not appropriate. 

Kay Roberts, who was the executive director of the Gambling Commission at the time, said: "These failures highlight clearly that both operators failed to interact with customers in a way which minimises the risk of them experiencing harms associated with gambling."

At the start of last year, online operator In Touch Games had to pay over £6 million as a penalty from the Gambling Commission for its social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.

The operator of a range of gambling sites including bonusboss.co.uk, cashmo.co.uk, drslot.co.uk and slotfactory.com had previously failed a compliance assessment.

The InTouch Games brands all used no deposit bonuses to attract customers, but always had high wagering requriements and low maximum win amounts, with many players reporting issues to us directly on BettingLounge.co.uk.

A player who was flagged over erratic play patterns and extended periods of play was not contacted by the company for seven weeks afterwards.

In Touch Games previously paid £2.2 million for regulatory failures in 2019 and, two years later, the company was given a £3.4 million fine and handed a warning over further failures. The UKGC then suspended the operating licences of In Touch Games Limited last September.

The operator of ballycasino.co.uk, doublebubblebingo.com and jackpotjoy.com was penalised for failing to prevent gambling harm and breaching money laundering regulations just this year.

Gamesys, which runs a dozen online gambling websites in total, saw myriad issues uncovered by a Gambling Commission compliance assessment that was conducted in May 2022. It found a failure to identify customers who were at risk of experiencing harms associated with gambling.

Past failings in anti-money laundering and social responsibility led to the company behind British betting brands Ladbrokes and Coral being given a £5.9 million penalty by the UKGC in 2019. 

GVC Holdings was told to pay the fine after a series of issues between November 2014 and October 2017 were found, prior to the two companies merging as the Ladbrokes Coral Group. 

In one of the most egregious examples of its failings, Ladbrokes failed to conduct social responsibility interactions with one of its customers who had lost £98,000 in a period of 30 months, asked to no longer be sent promotions and had 460 attempted deposits declined.

Coral failed to ask one of the brand's customers who had spent a total of £1.5 million in less than three years to provide evidence of their source of funds.

Richard Watson, UKGC's executive director, said: "These were systemic failings at a large operator which resulted in consumers being harmed and stolen money flowing though the business and this is unacceptable."

After it was found to have failed to follow Gambling Commission rules that are designed to prevent money laundering and to protect vulnerable consumers, online gambling business Daub Alderney received one of the biggest fines ever handed out by the UK's regulatory body.

The firm, which runs a host of brands such as aspers.com, kittybingo.com and luckypantsbingo.com, was given the punishment despite a change in its ownership.

A customer of the company lost £43,410 in four months even though they had shown indicators of problem gambling including making deposits with four different payment cards in a single day, as well as reversing a total of £133,873 in requested withdrawals. Another customer was able to deposit £50,000 in the cashier before the operator asked to see any source of funds evidence.

Daub Alderney appealed to the First-Tier Tribunal on the grounds the penalty was excessive, unfair and disproportionate, but a judge ruled in favour of UKGC.