UKGC takes enforcement action against Vbet

BetConstruct’s B2C sports betting and gaming brand, Vivaro Limited, has become the subject of enforcement action in the United Kingdom. The company, which is trading under Vbet, has agreed to pay a settlement to the tune of £337,631 or roughly $415,000 at the time of writing.

The enforcement action is the result of what the UK Gambling Commission believes to be shortages in the upholding of anti-money laundering and player protection standards. The alleged offenses are backdated and they span a period between 2020 and 2021 when the regulator conducted its audit as per the official statement.

The fine will be paid in three installments, with £15,606 covering the regulator’s own costs linked to the investigation, another £35,131 to be voluntarily divested, and the bulk of the penalty, £302,500 going to the National Gambling Strategy and projects tied to better understand and treat gambling disorders.

According to the UKGC, customers at Vbet were able to deposit what the watchdog described as "significant amounts" which did not trigger any Know Your Customer checks. The regulator contends that Vbet did not instruct and train its employees well enough as to how to collect such information and in what cases it can be requested. The regulator stated:

"It is the Commission’s view that whilst some checks were conducted, these were not sufficient until the customer had met the ‘very high AML threshold’ set by the licensee."

In cases where Vbet did apply anti-money laundering checks, the regulator asserted that the thresholds triggering the checks were too high, to begin with. The watchdog named particular cases which triggered enforcement, including a case where a customer was able to deposit £14,850 in two months but the source of funds of the said customer was not clearly established.

The commission also explained that Vbet would allow customers to pass checks based on their previous winnings from gambling. New customers were also exposed to significant risks, the UKGC stated, arguing that there were insufficient controls to protect newly-registered consumers.

Record-keeping was also targeted by the company and the company made insufficient efforts to establish how often customers used responsible gambling tools, for example. A customer would end up depositing £4,000 in a four-day period.

The UKGC has been busy meting out penalties over the past months. Aspire Global was hit with a £237,600 penalty in November, and the regulation took regulatory action against NSUS Limited before that in October, issuing a fine to the tune of £672,000.

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