Vbet, a sports betting and iGaming arm of BetConstruct that focuses on B2C is being fined by the UK Gambling Commission to the tune of £337,631.
The fine, according to the UK Gambling Commission, is due to regulatory failings such as anti-money laundering and player protection. An investigation conducted by the UK Gambling Commission uncovered various “significant weaknesses” in Vbet’s processes, including anti-money laundering and player protection, resulting in Vbet making a payment to socially responsible causes in lieu of a penalty package.
£302,500 will be allocated to National Gambling Strategy projects to pay for research and treatment of problem gambling. £35,131 will be also voluntarily divested, and £15,606.50 will go towards the Commission’s investigation costs.
“It is the Commission’s view that while some checks were conducted, these were not sufficient until the customer had met the ‘very high AML threshold’ set by the licensee,” the regulator said. “Customers could be misappropriating funds and re-depositing fresh criminal spend.”
“One customer with a salary of £5,000 a month was able to deposit £20,000 between 9 September 2020 and 5 February 2021. This amounted to circa 80% of the customer’s salary and the licensee did not sufficiently review this level of spend,” the Gambling Commission said.
