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Compliance Updates

UKGC Imposes £6M Penalty on Gamesys for Social Responsibility and AML Failures

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A gambling business will pay a £6 million penalty after a Commission investigation revealed social responsibility and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) failings.

Gamesys Operations Limited – which operates 16 websites including ballycasino.co.uk, doublebubblebingo.com, jackpotjoy.com and megawayscasino.com – will also have to undergo a third-party audit to ensure it is effectively implementing its anti-money laundering and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls.

The failures were revealed during a Commission compliance assessment in May 2022.

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Social responsibility failures included:

  • not always identifying customers at risk of experiencing harms associated with gambling by:
    • placing inappropriate reliance on checks which indicate whether a customer had a historical individual voluntary arrangement or been bankrupt or insolvent as a sign of gambling harm
    • having a system of deposit limits which, for some customers, did not identify risks of harm quickly enough – no risks were identified when one customer deposited £8255 within three days of opening an account, another lost £5968 within five weeks of opening an account and another lost £17,482 within 34 days of opening an account
  • not always interacting with customers who may be at risk of or experiencing harms associated with gambling. Examples include:
    • only interacting with one customer once they had lost almost £10,000, and that “responsible gambling interaction” involved the recommendation of new games and promotions
    • carrying out only one responsible gambling interaction with a consumer who lost £19,709 over five months
  • records of interactions, considerations and rationale for decisions were not always recorded in sufficient detail, despite this being specified in the Licensee’s responsible gambling procedures.

Anti-money laundering failures included:

  • in certain circumstances, some customers were able to evade some of the Licensee’s AML triggers/thresholds and go on to spend significant sums without AML checks being conducted – one customer deposited £14,585 in a 28 week period, another deposited £18,884 in just over six months and another deposited £34,280 in five and a half months
  • conducting inadequate customer due diligence and being over-reliant on third party information (such as internet research) or the customer’s verbal assurances for a number of customers, including one who deposited over £25,000 in three months, another who deposited over £58,000 in six months, and another who deposited over £65,000 in six months
  • having a “Reinvestment of winnings policy” which was insufficient to mitigate the risk that deposited funds could be from illegitimate sources and not just from previous winnings.

Kay Roberts, Executive Director of Operations at UKGC, said: “Our focus as a regulator is to ensure that operators are employing policies and procedures which make gambling fair, safe and crime-free. We take this responsibility extremely seriously and whenever we find failures in policies and procedures then the business can expect significant regulatory action.”

Compliance Updates

Vixio Launches Vixio Workspace: A Transformative Regulatory Management Tool

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New Tool Turns Vixio’s Regulatory Intelligence Into Auditable, Actionable Steps

Vixio, a leading provider of regulatory intelligence solutions, is excited to announce the launch of Vixio Workspace, a new regulatory management tool designed by compliance professionals, for compliance professionals. Vixio Workspace introduces a new intuitive workflow capability into Vixio’s regulatory intelligence platform, helping to transform Vixio’s world-class regulatory intelligence into actionable steps.

Compliance teams currently face multiple challenges when managing actions from regulatory change. Hours are spent juggling multiple disparate systems, from spreadsheets to emails and project management tools. This can cause errors and team misalignment between already siloed departments, meaning teams may miss actions or critical regulatory updates.

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The average compliance professional spends 70% of their time, and in some sectors up to 95% of their time, on reactionary administrative tasks rather than strategic guidance. Furthermore, with 85% of compliance leaders reporting that compliance requirements have become more complex in the past three years, and 77% reporting that compliance complexity has negatively affected company growth drivers, now, more than ever, compliance teams need a solution to bring calm to the chaos of compliance complexity.

Vixio Workspace aims to address the challenges faced by compliance teams by fusing regulatory intelligence and workflow capability together, which means teams will never miss action items from critical regulatory updates.

“After two decades of providing comprehensive regulatory intelligence, we’re excited to add to Vixio’s core offering by turning that intelligence into action,” Mike Woolfrey, CEO of Vixio, said, “We’ve spent hours listening to our customers’ compliance challenges and designed Vixio Workspace so that users can see global regulatory updates, track their progress to implementation, and document everything for easier attestation, rather than using siloed systems that can slow that process down. With Vixio Workspace, complexity in compliance doesn’t have to mean complicated.” 

Vixio Workspace’s streamlined platform combines regulatory intelligence with task management, eliminating the need for cumbersome copy/paste processes and tracking with spreadsheets. Furthermore, unlike other compliance SaaS software, Vixio Workspace doesn’t require any IT integration, allowing instantaneous adoption.

This new feature is available now and enhances Vixio’s existing RegTech platform, which provides essential regulatory intelligence to navigate the complex regulatory landscape.

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Key features of Vixio Workspace include:

  • World-class regulatory intelligence: Regulatory intelligence with unparalleled precision – precision is achieved through AI capability and a global team of expert regulatory analysts
  • Checklists: Use checklists, integrated with precision-driven regulatory intelligence, as a single source of truth to action and track compliance initiatives
  • Real-time dashboard: A single panoramic view of everything in one place, and real-time status of tasks and projects
  • Task management: Create and allocate tasks in seconds with the ability to manage compliance team priorities
  • Real-time data: This can be used for risk/compliance committees and meetings
  • Attestation: A single repository to capture attestation across the business for multiple compliance use cases
  • Chat function: Speeds up communication within compliance teams and the wider business
  • User management: Role-based user management and permissions for security and audibility
  • Audit trail: A digital audit trail which tracks discussions between collaborators and minimises the need for confusing email trails
  • Easy file uploads: Use for evidence submission and Vixio Workspace as a single repository for supporting documents

Vixio will host an official launch event for Vixio Workspace at The Haymarket Hotel in London on April 29th at 3 PM, where attendees will be among the first to see the tool in action.

Today’s launch underscores Vixio’s commitment to collaborating with clients to implement innovative solutions that address pressing compliance challenges.

The post Vixio Launches Vixio Workspace: A Transformative Regulatory Management Tool appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Association of Gaming Operators in Kenya Announces New Regulations

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The Association of Gaming Operators in Kenya (AGOK) in partnership with government agencies, regulators and civil society are spearheading a set of proactive initiatives designed to shape the future of the gaming industry and protect innocent Kenyans from addiction to gaming.

In a press release, the Association says nationwide awareness campaigns promoting informed, mindful participation in gaming will be carried out across the country.

Advocacy for tools such as time-out mechanisms, betting and deposit limits will be put in place to ensure a healthy and controlled gaming behaviour among Kenyans.

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“The gaming industry in Kenya continues to evolve rapidly, creating opportunities for economic growth, digital innovation, and employment. However, with this growth comes a heightened responsibility to safeguard the welfare of players, particularly young people and vulnerable populations,” the statement by AGOK’s board reads in part.

“AGOK acknowledges the complex challenges associated with gaming, particularly around mental health, addiction prevention, and ethical standards. These are global concerns which members of AGOK take seriously. They are at the forefront of our agenda.”

The Association furthers contends that all its members operate under a “shared code of conduct” rooted in principles of fairness, transparency and social responsibility.

Among meaningful steps it says it has taken to prevent exploitation and minimise harm include putting into place advanced age-verification systems to block underage access, self exclusion tools that provide options for and permanent restrictions to gaming activities and round-the clock toll free helplines that offer confidential mental health and addiction support.

The regulatory measures comes amid calls to regulate the sector following increase in cases of mental health and some suicide cases attributed to betting.

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Compliance Updates

Sumsub Maintains Compliance with iBeta Standards

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Sumsub announced that its Liveness solution has successfully passed iBeta Quality Assurance testing in line with the ISO/IEC 30107-3 standard. The evaluation, conducted on both Android and iOS platforms, confirms the solution’s compliance with Level 2 of the Biometric Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) Standard—the solution showed zero mistakes during testing, validating Sumsub’s technology as capable of resisting sophisticated spoofing attempts.

Sumsub’s Liveness solution is designed to detect deepfakes and prevent biometric fraud using advanced in-house AI models. With deepfakes growing 4x year-over-year and now accounting for 7% of all fraud cases, according to the company’s 2024 Identity Fraud Report, robust anti-spoofing technology is critical for safeguarding businesses and users alike. By integrating AI-driven detection tools, Sumsub helps organizations stay ahead of emerging threats and maintain trust throughout the user verification process.

“iBeta Level 2 testing reflects our commitment to trust, quality, and staying ahead of fraud trends. The industry is facing a rise in attack sophistication and scale, and it’s essential that our solutions continue meeting the highest standards. Routine third-party testing like this ensures we’re prepared for these evolving threats,” Vyacheslav Zholudev, CTO and co-founder of Sumsub, said.

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The post Sumsub Maintains Compliance with iBeta Standards appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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