Facing the consequences
NSUS Limited, which trades as GGPoker, has received a £672,829 ($743,002) fine from the UK Gambling Commission. The gambling regulator announced the financial penalty on Wednesday, saying the operator broke anti-money laundering and social responsibility rules.
GGPoker has also received an official warning
In addition to the financial penalty, GGPoker has also received an official warning. The UKGC did note that GGPoker fully complied with the investigation; the fine was officially imposed on September 22.
The specific issues
The social responsibility failings included not identifying or interacting with users who were at risk of suffering gambling-related harm. GGPoker also did not make every reasonable effort to stop marketing material being sent to users on its self-exclusion list. Marketing emails had been sent to 125 self-excluded users.
For the anti-money laundering failings, GGPoker did not properly carry out risk assessments relating to the possibility of the business being used for terrorist financing and/or money laundering. There was also a lack of controls, procedures, and policies that would help to stop any terrorist financing or money laundering from occurring.
other operators have been hit with much bigger penalties
The UKGC has been busy tackling any operators found to have social responsibility and/or anti-money laundering failings. The regulator is looking to make sure that proper protections are in place for consumers and to prevent illicit activity from taking place through online gambling platforms. While GGPoker received a six-figure fine, other operators have been hit with much bigger penalties. The biggest of these was handed out in August, a record-breaking £17m ($19m) fine to Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes.
A major player
GGPoker regularly receives more traffic than any other online poker operator in the world. One of its most notable partnerships is with the World Series of Poker (WSOP), through which it launched an online poker room in the legal Ontario market just a few weeks ago.
The operator has held an online gambling license in the UK since August 2017 and has had an online gambling software license since July 2019. In addition to offering online poker in the UK market, it also has the typical casino games available to play, such as roulette, baccarat, and blackjack.