Gambling Commission fines Star Racing £594,000

The GB Gambling Commission has issued a fine to Star Racing Limited for a series of anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility failings.

Star Racing, trading as Star Sports, will pay a penalty of £594,000 (€693,376/$772,840). It was also handed an official warning and had extra conditions added to its licence.

Setting out the charges, the Commission listed a number of failings that occurred between March 2020 and May 2021.

AML failures included having ineffective policies, procedures and controls in place at the time. Star Racing also allowed customers to deposit large amounts before obtaining source of funds information and failing to analyse source of funds information when it was obtained.

In terms of social responsibility failures, these included not demonstrating an understanding of the impact and effectiveness of customer interactions in terms of the minimisation of customer risk.

Licence breaches

Specific breaches noted in the case included Paragraphs 2 and 3 of licence condition 12.1.1: Anti-money laundering. This covers the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Commission also flagged Licence Condition 12.1.2. This requires operators based in foreign jurisdictions to comply with the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017.

In addition, Star Racing was ruled to have breached Social Responsibility code provision (SRCP) 3.4.1. This requires licensees to interact with customers to minimise the risk of harm associated with gambling.

In line with the Commission’s licensing, compliance and enforcement policy statement, the regulator settled on the fine and warning.

In addition, the extra licence conditions will require Star Racing to conduct risk-based due diligence on the third parties it transacts with.

Original Article