Regulator fines Intouch Games £6.1m
Intouch Games Group has been ordered to pay £6.1m for social responsibility and money laundering failings, the regulator confirmed on Wednesday, its third fine since 2019.
The Gambling Commission said Intouch, which operates 11 gaming websites including bonusboss.co.uk and cashmo.co.uk, had failed a compliance assessment last March.
Its investigation found a number of failures, including waiting seven weeks to contact a customer who had been flagged for erratic play patterns, and failing to verify if a customer earned £6,000 a month as they claimed after they were flagged for potential problem gambling.
The regulator also found that Intouch did not have adequate policies, procedures or controls in place around money laundering. As a result, it did not adequately take account of the risk of a customer being a beneficiary of a life insurance policy, having links to high-risk jurisdictions, or being a so-called politically exposed person.
It also failed to sufficiently consider the Commission’s money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment, or its guidance.
It is the third time Intouch has been fined by the Commission. In 2019 it struck a £2.2m settlement for regulatory failures before paying £3.4m and receiving a warning for further failures in 2021.
Kay Roberts, executive director of operations at the Commission, said: “Considering this operator’s history of failings, we expected to see significant improvement when we carried out our planned compliance assessment. Disappointingly, although many improvements had been made, there was still more to do.
“This £6.1m fine shows that we will take escalating enforcement action where failures are repeated and all licensees should be aware of this.”
Intouch, which was acquired last year by Isle of Man-based Skywind Holdings, has yet to comment on the fine.