TonyBet latest to suffer UKGC penalty

TonyBet is the latest company to face the ire of the UK Gambling Commission which has been actively looking to limit the instances of gambling law breaches in the country. As a result, the regulator has been issuing penalties to a plethora of operators on the market, and most recently to Vbet, which was fined just a day earlier on Tuesday, January 17.

TonyBet will now have to pay a £442,750 fine the regulator ordered in relation to several issues with the operator’s offer. The reasons listed by the UKGC have to do with the lack of fair and transparent terms and shortcomings in the anti-money laundering and social responsibility standards upheld by the company, the watchdog said in a statement.

As part of the enforcement action, the regulator has also ordered an independent third-party audit of the business to ensure that TonyBet will be able to meet the expected standards as mandated by its license. The UKGC has gone into detail to explain what some of the unfair rules listed on the site were, including a request for identification documents on "all withdrawals."

One term that the UKGC objected to was that "winnings could be confiscated" if consumers failed to provide AML information within 30 days. Another rule still stated that accounts would be considered dormant after six months of inactivity, which is also not fair, the regulator explains, as the law states that accounts only become dormant after 12 months of inactivity.

As to the contended allegations of social responsibility failures, the commission said that TonyBet had been slow to act in identifying customers who are at a greater risk of developing or suffering from gambling-related harm. The operator did not interact with such customers sufficiently.

There was also a lack of adequate risk assessments which put TonyBet at risk to be used for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing. The UKGC said that there was a lack of the necessary policies, procedures, and controls to ensure that this was not the case.

Commenting on this outcome, UKGC Executive Director of Operations Kay Roberts explained that the commission was fully determined to work against AML and social responsibility failures. The comments come at a time when the regulator is under increased pressure from some MPs who have argued that the UKGC, in its current form, is "not fit for its purpose."

These comments have mostly been made as a response to the commission’s determination to pass stronger affordability checks which some parties involved in the reregulation of the industry have described as overreaching and counterproductive, to say the least. Before fining Vbet, the UKGC also fined Aspire Global £237,600 in November.

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