Rank Group Agrees to Pay £5 Million in Regulatory Settlement.
Rank Group will pay a £5 million regulatory settlement to the Gambling Commission of Great Britain after failings in anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls at its Grosvenor Casinos business. The settlement, announced this morning, relates to Grosvenor’s 51 casinos across Great Britain.
Commission identifies control failures
The Commission said customers were able to gamble significant sums without appropriate source-of-funds checks or responsible gambling interactions. It found that Rank had not updated its anti-money laundering policies to reflect changes to the Money Laundering Regulations in 2020. The regulator also said the company’s procedures allowed inconsistent decisions about customers considered to pose an elevated money-laundering risk. In addition, Rank did not carry out enhanced customer due diligence when its own policies required it.
Examples of missed safer-gambling interaction
The Commission highlighted several cases, including a customer who lost £50,000 without a safer-gambling interaction. Another customer won approximately £260,000 in a short period, then lost around £250,000 in 12 days, with no record of any such interaction. A third customer, returning from self-exclusion, did not receive a safer-gambling interaction until they had lost £25,000.
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“Larger enforcement cases are often associated with online gambling but, as today’s announcement shows, the risks of anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures are equally alive in the land-based sector,” said Sue Young, Gambling Commission executive director of operations. “We would advise all premises-based operators to take a careful look at this case and ensure their own business is not making the same mistakes, and therefore they do not face costly and inevitable Commission action.”
Settlement and next steps
The full £5 million will go to the UK Government’s Consolidated Fund. Grosvenor Casinos has also agreed to undergo an independent external audit. The Commission said Rank cooperated with the investigation and acted swiftly to address the failings. It also noted that the operator had previously received formal advice about similar concerns. Rank disclosed in July that it had set aside £5 million for a proposed regulatory settlement with the Commission.
