UKGC slaps massive fine on Daub Alderney
News on 13 Nov 2018
News on 13 Nov 2018
Stride Gaming subsidiary Daub Alderney has been slapped with a massive GBP 7.1 million penalty by the UK Gambling Commission after a review found failings in anti-money laundering and social responsibility measures. In addition the company will have extra conditions placed on its license to provide gambling to British consumers.
In a separate regulatory notification today (Tuesday), Stride Gaming said: “After careful consideration, the Group has concluded that whilst it believes the UKGC fine to be excessive and disproportionate, it is not in the interests of the Group’s stakeholders to appeal the UKGC’s finding or penalty.”
Our readers will recall Stride Gaming set aside GBP 4 million back in August in anticipation of the penalty.
“The Board, having taken advice, remains of the belief that a penalty of no more than GBP4 million would be appropriate, particularly as the failings identified by the UKGC were procedural in nature and did not involve any incidence of identifiable money laundering,” the statement reads.
Richard Watson, Gambling Commission Executive Director, said: “This action is part of an ongoing investigation into the online casino sector. The operator’s standards did not match the protections required, and this fine reflects the seriousness of these lapses.”
Daub Alderney said subsequent to the UKGC’s initial findings, the failings identified by the UKGC had all been addressed in full.
Nigel Payne, Non-Executive Chairman of the Company:
“Stride Gaming considers that robust anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls are extremely important. It acknowledges and entirely supports the more robust steps taken by the UKGC in recent years to drive improvements across the industry.
“We remain disappointed with the particular circumstances of this case and with certain factual inaccuracies which were presented by UKGC to the Regulatory Panel in the course of the proceedings, which we believe coloured the size of the fine that has been imposed.
“We are of the view that both the industry and its regulator must be as one in its combined attempt to better regulate the industry and accordingly, we will be seeking to engage with the UKGC to improve the robustness of the process that we have just been through.”
The full text of the findings can be read here.
