Connect with us

Uncategorized

UKGC Imposes £9.4M Fine on 888 UK Limited Over Social Responsibility and AML Failures

Published

on

Reading Time: 2 minutes

 

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has imposed a fine of £9.4 million on 888 UK Limited for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.

888 UK Limited, which operates 78 websites including 888.com, has also received an official warning and will have to undergo extensive independent auditing.

The penalty package marks the second time 888 has faced an enforcement action by the UKGC who in 2017 ordered the FTSE250 operator to pay £7.8 million due to its failure to protect vulnerable customers.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Andrew Rhodes, Chief Executive of the UKGC, said: “The circumstances of the last enforcement action may be different but both cases involve failing consumers – and this is something that is not acceptable.

“Today’s fine is one of our largest to date, and all should be clear that if there is a repeat of the failures at 888 then we have to seriously consider the suitability of the operator to uphold the licensing objectives and keep gambling safe and crime-free.

“Consumers in Britain deserve to know that when they gamble, they are participating in a leisure activity where operators play their part in keeping them safe and are carrying out checks to ensure money is crime-free.”

Social responsibility failures included:

  • not effectively identifying players at risk of harm because their policies determined financial checks should be carried out after a customer had deposited £40,000
  • not carrying out a customer interaction with a customer who lost £37,000 in a six week period during the Covid-19 pandemic
  • not taking into account the Commission’s formal guidance on customer interaction
  • giving a customer they knew was an NHS worker earning £1400 a month a monthly deposit cap of £1300
  • most of the interactions conducted predominately consisted of an email just detailing the responsible gambling tools and did not require a customer response
  • during a Commission assessment, there was no evidence of the operator proactively placing restrictions on accounts where social responsibility concerns were raised
  • not ensuring that if a customer has multiple accounts those accounts are managed for customer interaction holistically and financial limits can be implemented across all accounts. In one example, a customer had one of his 11 accounts restricted because of Source of Funds (SOF) concerns, but he was allowed to open three more accounts and continue gambling.

Money laundering failures included:

  • implementing a policy where customers were allowed to deposit £40,000 before carrying out SOF checks
  • accepting verbal assurances from customers as to employment income and being reliant on open-source information to validate SOF
  • not setting out which documents should be requested as part of SOF checks
  • allowing one customer to spend £65,835 in just 5 months without SOF checks being carried out
  • not effectively implementing its own policies which stated that customers have 10 days to present SOF documentation before their account was restricted. In one case a customer’s SOF were not requested until three weeks after the 10 day trigger and lost £15,000 during that period.

Powered by WPeMatico

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Uncategorized

MightyTips teams up with HeyBaji to elevate the game

Published

on

mightytips-teams-up-with-heybaji-to-elevate-the-game
Reading Time: < 1 minute

MightyTips has joined forces with fast-growing online platform HeyBaji to increase user engagement, drive qualified traffic, and enhance visibility for both parties.

Eugene Ravdin, Head of PR at SEOBROTHERS, said: “Partnering with HeyBaji reflects MightyTips’ ongoing commitment to connect players with trusted, high-quality gaming platforms. We’re excited to support their growth through our collaboration.”

HeyBaji offers high-quality sports betting and live casino action, featuring games such as Baccarat, Roulette, Andar Bahar, Fan Tan, Sic Bo, and Dragon Tiger, hosted by live dealers.

Under the management of VB Digital N.V., and regulated by the Curacao Gaming Commission, HeyBaji operates with the highest standards of integrity, data security, and responsible gaming. The platform is supported by a dedicated 24/7 customer service.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Masum, Marketing Executive at HeyBaji, said: “Working with MightyTips has been a rewarding experience for HeyBaji. Their team consistently demonstrates professionalism, transparency, and a deep understanding of affiliate marketing. They’ve helped amplify HeyBaji’s presence by driving quality traffic and delivering players who truly engage with our platform.

MightyTips doesn’t just promote, they partner with purpose. Their commitment to performance and long-term growth aligns perfectly with HeyBaji’s mission to deliver top-tier gaming experiences. We look forward to scaling new heights together.”

This cooperation will further strengthen HeyBaji’s brand visibility across key markets while also enhancing the MightyTips network with another reputable operator.

The post MightyTips teams up with HeyBaji to elevate the game appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)
Continue Reading

Uncategorized

BETER Adds eTennis to ESportsBattle Tournaments

Published

on

beter-adds-etennis-to-esportsbattle-tournaments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

BETER, the award-winning provider of fast-betting content, data, and odds for esports and sports, has added eTennis disciplines to its flagship ESportsBattle series.

This makes BETER the first supplier to introduce a fast-paced eTennis format to the market, enabling operators to stand out with a truly unique product, provided with live streams, real-time data, and hyper-accurate odds.

The new discipline follows Grand Slam rules and consists of three sets. BETER is initially offering around 400 events per month, each lasting approximately 40 minutes, with competitions held daily from 07:00 to 15:30 CET. The supplier also plans to scale up to 2,200 monthly events by the end of the year, featuring various match formats across two concurrent 24/7 streams.

What truly sets eTennis apart is that bettors engage with real-world superstars rather than generic avatars. Familiar faces include Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Rafael Nadal, Gaël Monfils, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur, and more. This roster is curated based on sportsbooks’ feedback to ensure immediate recognition and wide appeal.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

BETER’s exclusive ESportsBattle tournaments deliver non-stop betting action across popular titles, including eFootball, eBasketball, eHockey, and now eTennis. With the addition of this latest discipline, BETER offers operators’ customers approximately 500,000 esports matches annually, with up to 50 markets per event. Operators benefit from a sustainable average margin of 7.5%. All matches are provided with 24/7 live streaming, real-time data, and odds.

BETER’s in-house Integrity team continuously monitors all events to ensure compliance with the highest standards of fair play.

Gal Ehrlich, CEO of BETER, said: “At BETER, we continue to mirror the most popular real-world sports with fast-paced esports counterparts to engage next-gen bettors. The addition of eTennis to our flagship ESportsBattle tournaments is the perfect next step.

“Interest in tennis is incredibly high among players, and this has led to a huge surge in demand among sportsbooks for an esports version of the game. We’re thrilled to now fill this gap in the market with a completely new offering. 

“The great thing about our eTennis is that it’s overseen by our Integrity team, ensuring a highly controlled environment and a close-to-zero risk of match-fixing — unlike real tennis, where suspicious betting alerts occur more frequently.”

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Adam Conway, General Manager of Esports Business Division at BETER, added: “Tennis is an incredibly popular sport worldwide, so it made perfect sense to add eTennis to our ESportsBattle tournaments — especially given the rising demand among operators and bettors for fast, round-the-clock esports content.

“At BETER, we’re committed to offering the best esports product suite in the market. That’s why we’re not only launching a never-before-seen eTennis offering, but also aiming to exceed 500,000 esports events annually across all four disciplines — a scale unmatched in the industry.

“We look forward to seeing our partners benefit from these new eTennis tournaments.”

The post BETER Adds eTennis to ESportsBattle Tournaments appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)
Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Casino security expert Douglas Florence: AI can work with game logic to cause a threat to casinos

Published

on

casino-security-expert-douglas-florence:-ai-can-work-with-game-logic-to-cause-a-threat-to-casinos
Reading Time: < 1 minute

“Game logic is the threat and that’s something AI can work with. If we are looking at Google Glass and any other ways people can put cameras in, say the side of their phones to lay them flat on a table, they can see marked cards, even if a deck is shuffled, if they turn it sideways like dealers do.

“Basically marked cards are like a bar code that changes on the side of the cards. They are printed that way. They get those decks into the casino.

“So AI can understand game logic very well, very quickly and requires sophistication. It can utilise sensory input, in our case a lot of it is video. They have cameras up their sleeves.

“So AI can make the whole concept of decision strategy more effective and when we look at electronic table games, you see electronic roulette, these games all have computers engaged.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

“Think about the very first computer crime we had in Vegas, going back to the early 90s. We had a team, 8 people who were able to break into a slot machine and the FBI called it a banana, a device that had an eprom on the end of it that goes into the motherboard. They were able to hack the machine, fix it to the eprom and change the outcome.

“They were hitting these multimillion dollar card giveaways and so on. What got them caught, because there were only eight people in their team, was they kept coming back to casinos in Jaguars and different vehicles, and the same people kept earning the same money. That’s what eventually got them caught. The guy went to prison. 

“So electronics and these machines today, they shield them.”

OLBG Casino

The post Casino security expert Douglas Florence: AI can work with game logic to cause a threat to casinos appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)
Continue Reading

Trending

Get it on Google Play

Fresh slot games releases by the top brands of the industry. We provide you with the latest news straight from the entertainment industries.

The platform also hosts industry-relevant webinars, and provides detailed reports, making it a one-stop resource for anyone seeking information about operators, suppliers, regulators, and professional services in the European gaming market. The portal's primary goal is to keep its extensive reader base updated on the latest happenings, trends, and developments within the gaming and gambling sector, with an emphasis on the European market while also covering pertinent global news. It's an indispensable resource for gaming professionals, operators, and enthusiasts alike.

Contact us: [email protected]

Editorial / PR Submissions: [email protected]

Copyright © 2015 - 2024 - Recent Slot Releases is part of HIPTHER Agency. Registered in Romania under Proshirt SRL, Company number: 2134306, EU VAT ID: RO21343605. Office address: Blvd. 1 Decembrie 1918 nr.5, Targu Mures, Romania