Grosvenor Casinos owner to pay £5m after watchdog finds gambling failures
Rank Group, owner of Grosvenor Casinos, will pay £5m after the Gambling Commission found anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.Summary
Rank Group, a FTSE-listed company that owns Grosvenor Casinos and other gambling venues, has agreed to pay £5 million following an investigation by the Gambling Commission. The review found failures in anti-money laundering and social responsibility across 51 casinos run by three Rank-owned operators. Issues included unclear policies that led to inadequate risk assessments for high-risk customers, such as a customer using cryptocurrency and a student from China, who should have received enhanced due diligence. In some cases, venue managers had too much autonomy, resulting in unscrutinised source-of-funds evidence, and one customer lost significant funds. There were also instances where staff failed to intervene with at-risk customers, including a long-standing customer who won about £260,000 and then lost about £250,000 in 12 days without safer gambling interactions. The Gambling Commission's executive director of operations, Sue Young, urged all premises-based operators to review their practices to avoid similar costly action. Rank has set aside £5 million for the settlement, stating it relates to historical venues and that remedial actions are substantially complete. The Gambling Commission has recently taken similar action against other gambling groups, including Paddy Power Betfair, which paid £2 million in December for social responsibility failures.
(Source：Evening Standard)