On September 23, 2021, the UK Gambling Commission announced the imposition of a £760,000 fine on EU Lotto, an online gambling website operator based in Gibraltar.
The Commission described EU Lotto’s anti-money laundering deficiencies during the period between October 2019 and November 2020 as including undue reliance on threshold triggers; insufficient wealth, income and risk factor information to inform how much a customer should be allowed to spend; ineffective review of bank statements used to identify customers’ addresses, and; permitting customers to register third-party debit cards to their accounts. The Commission also found that EU Lotto did not follow the Commission’s customer interaction guidance, which outlines how gambling establishments can identify behavior that could indicate harm, when and how they should interact with customers to limit or prevent harm, and how they must evaluate the interventions they have undertaken.
The Commission determined that by these failings, EU Lotto breached Anti-Money Laundering license conditions 12.1.1. and 12.1.2., as well as ordinary code provision 2.1.1 (Anti-money laundering) and paragraph 1 of the social responsibility code of practice.
As a result, the Commission attached additional conditions to EU Lotto’s operating license, issued a warning pursuant to section 117(a) of the Gambling Act 2005, required extensive independent auditing, and imposed a financial penalty of £760,000. According to the Commission, EU Lotto has taken remedial measures to address the failings, and cooperated throughout the investigation.