Platinum Gaming Hit with £10 Million Fine over UK Gambling Compliance Breaches
The UK Gambling Commission has fined Platinum Gaming Limited £10 million for widespread anti-money laundering and social responsibility breaches.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The Gambling Commission said it has levied a financial penalty of £10 million against Platinum Gaming Limited, the operator behind the Unibet.co.uk and uk.bingo.com brands, after concluding the business repeatedly failed to protect customers and manage money‑laundering risks. Alongside the fine, the regulator issued a formal warning and ordered the operator to appoint an independent third‑party auditor to verify remediation measures.
The regulator’s sanctions come after an investigation that identified a string of serious social responsibility failures. The Commission cited cases in which staff did not act on clear indicators of potential harm: for example, a customer lost £5,000 within 24 hours of opening an account; another lost £31,000 over nine months; a player breached a £2,500 loss limit within 16 minutes of registering; and a customer staked £73,000 across 23 days while losing £4,100. The Commission said these incidents should have prompted intervention and enhanced safeguards.
On the anti‑money‑laundering front, the Commission found that the operator allowed customers whose accounts had previously been closed for AML concerns to open fresh accounts, in some cases where closures occurred prior to 2023. The regulator also described the operator’s customer due diligence policy as unclear and said there was insufficient evidence that reviewers had considered high‑risk factors – such as high‑risk occupations, elevated deposit and withdrawal activity, and patterns of substantial losses – when assessing customers.
This enforcement action is not the operator’s first brush with the Commission. Platinum Gaming previously received a penalty of £2.9 million for related failings, underscoring what the regulator described as a repeated shortfall in embedding effective controls across its UK operations.
These failings are particularly disappointing. Despite the measures set out in the operator’s own framework, its controls were not effective in protecting vulnerable customers or preventing money‑laundering risks. As a senior participant in the sector, Platinum Gaming must do better and set an example for improvement; if it does not, further regulatory activity will remain a possibility.
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Under the terms of the decision, Platinum Gaming must commission an independent audit and carry out an internal investigation, supplying regular progress reports to the Commission. The third‑party auditor will be tasked with confirming that the operator’s remedial programme has been implemented and is producing the desired outcomes. The Commission said these steps are intended to drive lasting change, reinforce accountability at senior levels, and embed a culture of compliance across the business.
An independent gambling compliance specialist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the case highlights persistent weaknesses across some operators’ risk‑scoring and account‑monitoring models. "Many firms rely on automated flags, but there must be trained teams empowered to act on cumulative indicators – rapid losses, previous account closures and unusual transaction profiles – otherwise warning signals are routinely missed", the specialist said.
Industry bodies and operators will be watching closely. The scale of the penalty and the requirement for ongoing oversight signal that the Commission expects senior management to take direct responsibility for culture and controls. For other UK licence holders, the decision serves as a reminder that the regulator is prepared to use its full suite of tools – from fines to mandated audits – to enforce standards.
Compliance directors at other major operators in the UK market are likely to review governance arrangements, customer‑risk frameworks and remediation pipelines in response to the ruling. The Commission has said it will continue to monitor the market and take further action where firms fall short of legal and regulatory obligations.
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