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Casumo fined £6 million by the UKGC over various shortcomings
The UKGC has officially issued fines amounting to £6 million to Casumo, the Malta-based sportsbook and iGaming operator. The Commission based these fines on a bunch of findings that revealed failure to comply with social responsibility measures as well as issues with anti-money laundering steps.
After an inspection of the operator’s activities from October 2019 up until January of 2020, it was revealed that it had not been going through with some guidelines regarding customer care, player protection and social responsibility.
All of these shortcomings subsequently ended up in a customer actually losing £1.1m during three years, since the operator had not been intervening and implementing its safer gambling policies. Some other inconsistencies included another customer losing £65,000 in just a month, then another losing £76,000 across the span of seven months, with the operator not intervening in any way, shape or form. The UKGC also noted that they found another client who lost £89,000 in just five hours, and a second one losing £59,000 in an hour and a half.
Moreover, the Commission said that SOF checks were not adequate enough, and the operator displayed absolutely no limit concerning the amount that a client is able to spend, considering their income or general habits.
Commission Executive Director Richard Watson noted:
“This case was brought about through planned compliance activity and every operator out there should be aware that we will continue to take firm action against those who fail to raise standards.”
In a statement on this penalty, the operator mentioned that it was entirely cooperating with the Commission on the analysis of its measures concerning compliance. Casumo also said that these shortcomings were mainly brought on by the massive growth that it witnessed when it was still a startup.
Shelly Suter-Hadad, CEO of Casumo, went on to say:
“Since joining Casumo last year, my focus has been on putting in place a new senior leadership team and Personal Management License holders with extremely strong industry experience and the knowledge and expertise to ensure we are a compliance-led business. In addition, recognising that key processes fell short in the past, I took immediate action to implement fundamental operational changes so that Casumo is now a gaming group with compliance and responsible gambling at the heart of its business and culture. These efforts, together with our full collaboration, have been formally recognised multiple times by the Commission.”
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