Gambling Commission Details £5m Rank Group Settlement

Great Britain’s Gambling Commission has published details of a £5m settlement with The Rank Group following an investigation into compliance failures across its casino operations.

The regulator identified anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility shortcomings at Rank subsidiaries Grosvenor Casinos Limited, Grosvenor Casinos (GC) Limited and Gaming Group Limited.

Rank previously disclosed the settlement in July, when it said its full-year results would include a £5m provision relating to “historical compliance failings” under investigation by the Gambling Commission.

The £5m settlement will be directed to the government’s Consolidated Fund.

Gambling Commission Identifies AML Failures

According to the regulator, Rank operated AML policies, procedures and controls that allowed inconsistent decisions to be made in relation to customers presenting an elevated money laundering risk.

The Gambling Commission also identified unclear policies and controls that resulted in inappropriate risk ratings being assigned to high-risk customers.

In some cases, customers were able to use sources of funds considered high risk without what the regulator considered appropriate scrutiny.

Further shortcomings were identified in Rank’s due diligence procedures.

The Commission also found that the operator had failed to update its AML policies to reflect changes made to the Money Laundering Regulations in 2020.

Safer Gambling Interactions Examined

The investigation also identified a number of social responsibility failings involving customer interactions.

In one case, Rank did not conduct safer gambling interactions with a customer during a period in which the individual lost £50,000.

The regulator also found no record of safer gambling interactions with another customer who won approximately £260,000 over a short period before losing around £250,000 within 12 days.

A further case involved a customer returning to gambling following a period of self-exclusion. According to the Commission, Rank did not carry out a safer gambling interaction until the customer had lost £25,000.

Sue Young, executive director of operations at the Gambling Commission, said:

“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.“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, and therefore they do not face costly and inevitable Commission action.”