Compliance Updates

Regulatory action against EU Lotto

Published

4 weeks ago

September 24, 2021

Reading Time: 2 minutes

A gambling business must pay a £760,000 fine and undergo extensive independent auditing after a Commission investigation revealed social responsibility and money laundering failures.

EU Lotto – which operates the lottoland.co.uk website – has also received a formal warning for the failures which occurred between October 2019 and November 2020.

Social responsibility requirement failures included neglecting to take into account the Commission’s formal customer interaction guidance.

Examples included:

customers frequently changing deposit limits not being considered as markers of harm
no evidence of suitable financial and affordability assessments being conducted to identify whether a customer was being harmed or at risk of harm
customer interactions predominately consisted of an email detailing the responsible gambling tools available and did not require a customer response – there was little evidence of interactions being adapted depending on the extent of potential harm.

Anti-money laundering failures included:

not effectively reviewing or analysing bank statements provided by customers to prove address
not restricting customer accounts following source of funds (SoF) requests
allowing customers to register third-party debit cards (such as those in a different name to the customer) to their account
relying too heavily on ineffective threshold triggers and generally lacking information regarding how much a customer should be allowed to spend based on income, wealth or any other risk factors.

Helen Venn, Commission Executive Director, said: “This case, like other recent enforcement action, was the result of planned compliance activity. All operators should be very aware that we will not hesitate to take firm action against those who fail to meet the high standards we expect for consumers in Britain.”

Read EU Lotto’s full penalty on the Commission’s regulatory sanctions register.

Nigel Birrell, CEO of Lottoland commented: “Lottoland is fully committed to ensuring the highest standards of compliance, including its anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations in all of the jurisdictions in which it operates. The Gambling Commission fine was related to legacy issues around some of our compliance controls which have now been addressed. Lottoland has extensive compliance measures in place and we are confident that our current policies and processes meet all relevant standards.

Remedial action taken included significantly increased investment in our compliance function, more than doubling headcount, alongside a host of other initiatives including bringing in third party support, enhancing training and a review of key policies. In addition, we recently committed to building our individual processes into an automated system to improve the system even further. “

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Compliance Updates

Lady Luck Games awarded multiple market certification

Published

1 day ago

October 22, 2021

Vlad Poptamas

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Games from Swedish slots specialist Lady Luck Games have been certified in five of Europe’s most important regulated markets.

Players favourites like Valhöll: Hall of the Slain, Valley of the Muses and Alchemister will join new release Rooftop Fight on the roster of online casinos in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

The certification, via iTech Labs, will now allow their high-quality artwork and engaging maths models to be enjoyed by millions of new customers at some of the industry’s leading operators.

Lady Luck Games co-founder and CEO Mads Jorgensen said the regulatory approval would provide a significant commercial boost to the studio in its quest for international expansion.

He added: “We are very confident that our games portfolio has universal appeal and having this certification is an important step in proving that. Access to market is hugely important for any company in any industry and we now have a real opportunity to take great strides as a business.”

Lady Luck Games recent acquired fellow provider Spigo ApS’s operations in Denmark, including the studio’s casino games, eight customer integrations and Spigo Station, the supplier’s Denmark-certified platform.

Compliance Updates

UKGC Receives Four Applications for National Lottery Licence

Published

2 days ago

October 21, 2021

Niji Narayan

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has received four final applications for the Fourth National Lottery licence competition.

The competition for the fourth licence was launched in August 2020 and now moves into the final stage with four applicants submitting their applications for final evaluation. This is the highest number of final applications received since the first licence was awarded in 1994.

“We are delighted by the final number of applications we have received, which is unprecedented since the start of the National Lottery. The Commission will now evaluate these applications in a clear and robust process. Our job is to run the best competition we possibly can – one that is open and fair and results in the best outcome for players and good causes. We look forward to appointing a licensee that will build on the National Lottery’s legacy and maximise the opportunities for innovation and creativity whilst protecting the special status of the National Lottery,” Fourth National Lottery Licence Competition (4NLC) executive director John Tanner said.

Compliance Updates

MGA | Updates to the Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive & Key Function Eligibility Criteria Policy

Published

3 days ago

October 20, 2021

George Miller

MGA | Updates to the Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive & Key Function Eligibility Criteria Policy

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The Malta Gaming Authority is hereby publishing a series of amendments to the Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive (Directive 3 of 2018). The amendments mainly relate to the following:

The overall number of key function roles and their underlying responsibilities;
The deadlines by when certain key function requirements are to be observed;
The persons who shall shoulder responsibility in the absence of duly appointed key function holders;
The manner and form in which declarations and assurances are to be made by auditors on behalf of licensees during submission of audited financial statements; and
The applicability of suspicious betting reporting requirements.

These amendments are being published together with a Policy on the Eligibility and Ongoing Competency Criteria for Key Persons. This Policy is intended to revise and collate the existing eligibility criteria while also introducing authorisation renewal requirements related to continuous professional development for existing key persons. Moreover, the Policy clarifies the MGA’s position regarding the compatibility of key function roles with each other in light of the amendments to the Directive.