Buzz Bingo Slapped with £780K Fine by UKGC

A Lengthy Investigation Was Carried Out!

The UK Gambling Commission have a duty to check operators are doing everything they can when it comes to protecting their customers, and should they find there is room for improvement, they’ll issue fines. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we can give you a little example of just how big the fines are for non-compliance of the rules…a total of almost £60million in fines were handed down to gambling operators in just a 6-year period, the highest fine to a single operator was issued to Betway for £11.6m.

Now it’s Buzz Bingo’s time in the spotlight for “a range of social responsibility and money laundering failures”, an accusation by the UKGC which has led to a fine of £780K! The regulatory body identified numerous shortcomings between October 2019 and December 2020 as part of their investigation, including financial triggers which were “not sufficiently identifying at-risk players.” In one instance, a player had deposited and wagered £22,400 in just five days without a single “meaningful interaction” from the bingo operator.

There were three other allegations made regarding social responsibility failings, including:

• Failure to consider the increased risk of gambling harm to two customers who had won large amounts of money gambling, despite the customers showing high levels of spend,
• Not carrying out effective customer interactions with customers who gambled aggressively over short periods of time. The report highlights how one customer deposited and lost £12,400 during a six-day period, but the operator’s only record of contacting the customer during this period was titled “coping well in COVID-19”
• The operator’s own customer interaction procedure wasn’t adhered to with staff not always following up with a customer despite a decision stating otherwise. Interaction like this is to check customers are comfortable with their gambling.

It’s All Different Now

Responding to the Commission’s allegations, Dominic Mansour, Buzz Bingo’s Chief Operating Officer, Digital, “The fine from the Gambling Commission relates to legacy issues that have now been addressed. Buzz Bingo has reviewed and overhauled all its compliance measures and is confident that current policies and processes now meet the standards set. Moreover, Buzz Bingo has increased its current and ongoing investment to enhance all its risk and compliance processes to continually improve player protection.”

But that’s not all! The UKGC also identified four anti-money laundering failings, including one where Source of Funds (SOF) checks were not carried out to their fullest. Some were reliant on open source or anecdotal info. One customer who provided SOF was passed even though the info supplied was related to a large win, and nobody considered this may have been recycled winnings or proceeds of crime.

Before anti-money laundering procedures were activated, multiple alerts were needed. One customer had to hit 9 financial alerts before their account was suspended for checks. Another failure was Buzz bingo’s lack of sufficient anti-money laundering records. The UKGC said “it was often not clear what had been discussed during those interactions.”

Helen Venn, Commission Executive Director, said: “As a regulator we expect all operators to effectively implement policies and procedures which make gambling safe and crime-free. Every single gambling business should be aware that we do check that these are in place and are being adhered to. If they are not, we will take action.”

Source: “UKGC Issues £780K Fine to Buzz Bingo for Social Responsibilities and AML Failings”. SBC News. December 16, 2021.