UKGC issues £6.1m fine to In Touch Games

The UKGC continues to issue penalties against operators in the gambling industry in the United Kingdom. The Gambling Commission has now fined In Touch Games, which currently operates 11 web properties, to the amount of £6.1m (ca $7.51m). This is the third penalty the company has been hit with over the past several years.

Previously, the commission issued similar proceedings. In 2019, the regulator reached a settlement with the company worth £2.2m. Then, in 2021, In Touch Game was hit by a £3.4m fine and the regulator issued an official warning.

The latest enforcement action was necessitated after the company and a number of its brands, including but not limited to bonusboss.co.uk, drslot.co.uk, and slotfactory.com, failed a compliance assessment conducted in March 2022.

The Gambling Commission has discovered shortcomings and failuresconnected to anti-money laundering practices and social responsibility. On the count of social responsibility, the UKGC found In Touch Games to be short of maintaining a good standard for reaching out to players who may be experiencing some form of gambling-related distress.

The regulator explained that some cases of erratic play patterns and prolonged periods of play were not properly addressed by the company. Another criticism the regulator had was related to the fact that In Touch Games accepted at face value the claim of a customer who stated that he could afford to gamble an unspecified amount because they earned £6,100 a month.

No further investigation into establishing the veracity of the claim was made at the time, the watchdog noted. In terms of anti-money laundering shortcomings, the Gambling Commission had more to add. Among the offenses, the regulator discovered was a lack of adequate taking account of the risk individual customers carried.

Some of these risks included links to high-risk jurisdictions, being a politically exposed person, or being a beneficiary of a life insurance policy. These and other risk factors were not addressed through adequate policies, procedures, and controls, the regulator said in a second objection to the overall AML practices at the company.

Another breach was established in relation to In Touch Games’ attitude towards the regulator’s money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment. In cases where the company had its own policies, the regulator still contended that they were not implemented properly. Because of these breaches, and given the company’s previous track record, the commission has been forced to issue the £6.1m penalty.

The Gambling Commission has been busy of late hitting Vbet with a £337,631 fine earlier this month. TonyBet, another operator, was fined £442,750 just after the Vbet enforcement action. Commenting on the proceedings against In Touch Games, UKGC Executive Director of Operations Kay Roberts said that the latest penalty was also motivated by the company’s track record in the UK market.

"This £6.1m fine shows that we will take escalating enforcement action where failures are repeated and all licensees should be acutely aware of this," Roberts concluded.

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