The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is telling gaming operators to have a close look at their anti-money laundering policies after finding that one or more major operator had holes in their own policies.

The UKGC found that the Rank Group had weaknesses in its own anti-money laundering procedures, particularly at their Grosvenor Casinos.

Grosvenor Failed to Look Into Source of Wealth

The issue with Grosvenor Casinos dealt with a customers that are former Da Feng Ding, who was simply convicted of money laundering and recently sentenced to four years in prison as a result.

At one of their casinos, Ding could have been Grosvenor’s biggest client between 2008 and 2011.

The problem, according to the UKGC, was that Grosvenor needs to have at least been dubious about the source of Ding’s endless wealth.

Regardless of the proven fact that Ding had no obvious way to obtain earnings, casino officials did little or nothing to try to verify the source of his funds, even after he invested sums that must have triggered Grosvenor’s responsible gambling policies, which it seems were never enacted by casino staff.

Grosvenor additionally neglected to properly report the nature that is suspicious of’s play to law enforcement agencies, something required under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Ding ultimately self-excluded himself from the company’s casinos in 2011, saying that he needed seriously to control their gambling.

Similar Issues at Meccabingo.com

The Rank Group was also cited due to their handling of an incident involving Meccabingo.com, a product that is component of their Rank Digital Group.

An unnamed customer (known as ‘Customer B’ in the UKGC investigation) recently pleaded guilty to defrauding her employer out of thousands of British pounds, then gambling a similar sum on Meccabingo.com.

According to your UKGC, the consumer played on the site from November 2011 through December 2014, when she was arrested.

Exactly What began as low-stakes play suddenly increased beginning in May 2012, staying at or above £5,000 ($7,700) an up until the time of her arrest month.

The UKGC said that Rank Digital did not properly monitor the customer’s dubious play or make appropriate anti-money laundering checks during her time on the website.

In fact, they instead treated her quite nicely: offered how much money she had been spending, they treated Consumer B being a player that is highly-valued rewarding her with a trip to Las Vegas in October 2013 and a cruise in late 2014, simply before her arrest.

Rank Surrenders Profits from Overlooked Issues

Given the effectiveness of evidence against them, Rank acknowledged that they had failed in their responsibilities and agreed to surrender £950,000 ($1.46 million) that the business made in profits from their anti-money laundering oversights.

The organization also says so it will undergo a separate review of its procedures.

The UKGC is also utilizing the Rank Group cases to send a wider message to gambling operators about the importance of combating cash laundering, asking companies to have a closer glance at their responsibilities and make yes they are checking into regular customers who are investing suspiciously large levels of profit their casinos, betting stores or websites.

In specific, the commission asked operators to make sure that their spending could lead to investigations, and asked that gambling companies consider whether they were only providing information as ‘cover’ in order to continue relationships with suspicious clients that they are not tipping off customers by warning them.

‘The Commission is bringing towards the attention of all operators the necessity to simply take a critical approach to assessing their own policies and procedures and, crucially, whether they’re being followed and remain fit for purpose, to avoid producing a false feeling of security,’ the UKGC stated.