Gambling Commission hits Casumo Services Limited with a £6 million penalty

In the United Kingdom and the Gambling Commission regulator has reportedly ordered online casino operator Casumo Services Limited to pay a fine of £6 million ($8.24 million) after an investigation uncovered failings in the firm’s social responsibility and anti-money laundering protocols.

According to a report from the online news domain at iGamingBusiness.com, the stiff punishment came after the watchdog discovered that the Maltese operator had allowed a player on its Casumo.com domain to lose some £1.1 million ($1.51 million) over the course of three years with no bespoke interaction. The source detailed that a similar lack of contact was noted for another punter who racked up losses of around £65,000 ($89,300) in only a month as well as a third who had failed to the tune of roughly £59,000 ($81,000) in just 90 minutes.

Operator obligations:

The Gambling Commission reportedly declared that its Social Responsibility Code requires all licensed iGaming firms to ‘interact with customers’ so as to minimize ‘the risks of customers experiencing harms associated with gambling’ while simultaneously conducting exercises to identify potentially at-risk punters. On the issue of anti-money laundering and the watchdog purportedly asserted that its examination found that customers of Casumo.com had been permitted to deposit ‘significant sums of money’ without undergoing sufficient source-of-funds checks.

Inadequate evidence:

Casumo Services Limited was moreover reportedly criticized for allowing online casino aficionados to use invoices and payslips not corroborated with official bank statements as evidence of funds. The regulator purportedly proclaimed via an official decision that all of this had been made worse by the operator’s failure to institute internal spending limits based on the known wealth, income and other factors of its customers.

Required corroboration:

Richard Watson serves as the Executive Director for the Gambling Commission and he reportedly divulged that Casumo Services Limited has also been issued with an official warning and will be obliged to engage an independent auditor to verify that its social responsibility and anti-money laundering systems meet the regulator’s code of practice and licensing conditions.

Reportedly read a statement from Watson…

“This case was brought about through planned compliance activity and every operator out there should be aware that we will continue to take firm action against those who fail to raise standards.”

Mended motivation:

For its part and Casumo Services Limited reportedly responded by stating that the breaches the Gambling Commission found occurred between October of 2019 and January of last year when it had been in its ‘start-up phase’. It purportedly furthermore disclosed that it has since appointed Shelly Suter-Hadad to serve as its Chief Executive Officer and fundamentally updated its social responsibility and anti-money laundering processes and policies.

Suter-Hadad reportedly proclaimed…

“These efforts, together with our full collaboration, have been formally recognized multiple times by the Gambling Commission.”