UKGC issues £594,000 penalty to Star Sports

Amid ongoing consultations that are designed to usher in a new age of gambling regulation in the United Kingdom, the country’s watchdog, UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), has issued a new penalty to a licensed operator in the gambling industry.

The latest in a series of fines has targeted Star Racing Limited, which operates Star Sports, a bookmaker, and which will now have to pay £594,000 in what is alleged to be shortcomings in the company’s social responsibility and anti-money laundering measures.

The UKGC has released a news update on what has necessitated the penalty, and the period to which it applied. According to the regulator, there were sufficient instances of shortcomings in the way anti-money laundering procedures and controls were managed and carried out in the period between March 2020 and May 2021 to necessitate enforcement action in this case.

The UKGC added that it also found social responsibility shortcomings that lacked an understanding of customer interactions, which failed to result in meaningful customer risk reduction. As a result, the regulator has decided to both attach additional licensing conditions to the licensee and also issue the final sum of the penalty.

The UKGC also detailed the specific breaches, including those of Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the license condition – Prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. Another issue was highlighted with License Condition 12.1.2 which expects from operators based in foreign jurisdictions to ensure that they comply with all money laundering, terrorist financing, and transfer of funds prerequisites.

The specific social responsibility failings have to do with Paragraphs 1 and 2 of SocialResponsibility Code provision 3.4.1, the regulator said. As noted, this is specifically tied to the operator’s commitment to ensure that operators actively seek to minimize the potential for harm that their customers may experience.

Recently, the regulator has fined a number of companies, including TGP Europe Limited which was ordered to pay a £316,250 penalty. Far more notably, however, the UKGC went after William Hill and reached a record settlement with the operator, with the two parties agreeing on £19.2m as the final settlement amount, or close to $24m when the settlement was issued.

The Gambling Commission was often criticized in the past for showing too much leniency. However, the regulator has refuted those claims and argued that it operates within its remit and is always in the best interest of consumers and society.

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