Mr Green fined £3 million for consumer safety failures

Post published:February 27, 2020
Post category:News / iGaming

Wiliam Hill’s Mr Green online casino business has been fined £3m for slack procedures to prevent consumer harm and money laundering.

The Gambling Commission imposed the fine for systemic failings by Mr Green, which claims to be a leader in keeping customers safe. The £3m penalty will help fund the national strategy to reduce gambling damage.

The regulator said Mr Green’s failures included:

Lack of responsibility in dealing with a customer who won £50,000, gambled it away and bet thousands of pounds more

Allowed a customer to gamble more than £1m based on a £176,000 claims payout from 10 years earlier

Accepted a photograph of a laptop screen showing currency in dollars on a supposed crypto trading

William Hill shares fell 6.3% to 161.15p at 14:17 GMT.

The company bought Mr Green, which runs online sports betting and casino operations, in January 2019. Announcing the £242m acquisition William Hill said Mr Green was a “leader in sustainability” whose values had a strong fit with its own “nobody harmed” responsible gambling programme.

Richard Watson, executive director of the Gambling Commission, said: “Our investigation uncovered systemic failings in respect of both Mr Green’s social responsibility and anti-money laundering controls which affected a significant number of customers across its online casinos.

“Consumers in Britain have the right to know that there are checks and balances in place which will help keep them safe and ensure gambling is crime-free – and we will continue to crack down on operators who fail in this area.”