Intouch Games fined £3.4m after UKGC finds a series of failings

UKGC

Intouch Games has received an official warning, must pay a £3.4m fine and is required to undergo extensive auditing after a Gambling Commission assessment revealed social responsibility, money laundering and marketing failures.

As part of a new licence condition, the regulator says that the company shall, at its own expense, instruct a firm of independent auditors to carry out an audit that ensures full compliance with the licence conditions and codes of practice.

Richard Watson, Commission executive director, said: “Through our challenging compliance and enforcement activity we will continue our work to raise standards in the industry and continue to hold failing operators to account.”

Social responsibility failings included stating in its responsible gambling team interaction guidance that a bonus may be offered if a customer provides identification, as well as not putting into effect its policies and procedures for customer interaction for seven customers where it had concerns that activity may indicate problem gambling.

Furthermore, it was also reported that the firm was not using all relevant sources of information to ensure effective decision making, and to guide and deliver effective customer interactions for those seven customers. 

The UKGC updates that “if the licensee had followed its policy it should have given more consideration to placing mandatory limits on customer accounts”.

Among the anti-money laundering failings discovered was having a risk assessment which did not take into account the risk of allowing customers to use a payment provider which also acts as an exchange for cryptocurrencies.

It was also reported that the AML faults included neglecting to conduct appropriate levels of enhanced customer due diligence, and failing to critically review the source of funds information once it was requested.

Fair and transparent terms and practices failings included not stating in an SMS the minimum and maximum deposits in an offer’s significant terms, or the time limit for which the bonus offer could be claimed.