Rank Group to Pay £5M  Fine for AML, Safer Gambling Failures

Rank Group will pay £5 million ($6.6 million) after a United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) investigation uncovered anti-money laundering and safer gambling failures at three of the operator’s land-based casinos.

The settlement covers Grosvenor Casinos Limited, Grosvenor Casinos (GC) Limited, and Gaming Group Limited. The Rank Group businesses operate 51 land-based casinos across Great Britain.

The operator must also undergo a third-party audit to assess whether it is effectively implementing anti-money laundering (AML) and safer gambling policies and controls.

The fine will not come as a surprise to Rank Group. During its Q2 in July, Rank disclosed that it had proposed a £5 million payment over what it described as “historical compliance failures” at Grosvenor Casinos. 

At the time, it noted that the regulator was “minded to accept” the proposal.

Customers Lost £50,000 Without Intervention

The UKGC identified several cases where Rank’s casinos failed to appropriately intervene when customers were showing potentially concerning gambling behavior.

In one case, a customer lost £50,000 ($66,000) during a period in which the operator carried out no safer gambling interactions.

Another customer won approximately £260,000 ($344,000) over a short period and then lost the majority of it back within 12 days. The UKGC found no record of any safer gambling interaction during that period.

And in a third case cited by the UKGC, a customer who returned to a casino following a period of self-exclusion lost £25,000 ($33,000) before the operator intervened with a safer gambling interaction.

Sue Young, the Gambling Commission’s executive director of operations, said the cases demonstrated that serious compliance problems were not confined to online gambling.

“Larger enforcement cases are often associated with online gambling but, as today’s announcement shows, the risks of anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures are equally alive in the land-based sector,” Young said.

Rank Casinos Had Inconsistent AML Controls

The investigation also found deficiencies in the Rank Group operators’ AML framework.

Rank’s casino businesses had failed to update their AML policies to reflect changes made to the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations in 2020.

The Commission also found that Rank’s policies allowed inconsistent decisions for customers carrying heightened money-laundering risks. Unclear controls resulted in some high-risk customers receiving inappropriate risk classifications.

In some cases, high-risk sources of funds were also accepted without sufficient scrutiny. The operators additionally failed to conduct enhanced customer due diligence when their own policies required it.

“We would advise all premises-based operators to take a careful look at this case and ensure their own business is not making the same mistakes,” Young said. Otherwise, she added, operators could face “costly and inevitable Commission action.”

The settlement adds to a series of recent Gambling Commission enforcement actions. Evolution last month agreed a £4.75 million ($6.42 million) settlement after its games were found on websites targeting Great Britain without a license.