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UKGC Imposes £9.4M Fine on 888 UK Limited Over Social Responsibility and AML Failures
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has imposed a fine of £9.4 million on 888 UK Limited for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.
888 UK Limited, which operates 78 websites including 888.com, has also received an official warning and will have to undergo extensive independent auditing.
The penalty package marks the second time 888 has faced an enforcement action by the UKGC who in 2017 ordered the FTSE250 operator to pay £7.8 million due to its failure to protect vulnerable customers.
Andrew Rhodes, Chief Executive of the UKGC, said: “The circumstances of the last enforcement action may be different but both cases involve failing consumers – and this is something that is not acceptable.
“Today’s fine is one of our largest to date, and all should be clear that if there is a repeat of the failures at 888 then we have to seriously consider the suitability of the operator to uphold the licensing objectives and keep gambling safe and crime-free.
“Consumers in Britain deserve to know that when they gamble, they are participating in a leisure activity where operators play their part in keeping them safe and are carrying out checks to ensure money is crime-free.”
Social responsibility failures included:
- not effectively identifying players at risk of harm because their policies determined financial checks should be carried out after a customer had deposited £40,000
- not carrying out a customer interaction with a customer who lost £37,000 in a six week period during the Covid-19 pandemic
- not taking into account the Commission’s formal guidance on customer interaction
- giving a customer they knew was an NHS worker earning £1400 a month a monthly deposit cap of £1300
- most of the interactions conducted predominately consisted of an email just detailing the responsible gambling tools and did not require a customer response
- during a Commission assessment, there was no evidence of the operator proactively placing restrictions on accounts where social responsibility concerns were raised
- not ensuring that if a customer has multiple accounts those accounts are managed for customer interaction holistically and financial limits can be implemented across all accounts. In one example, a customer had one of his 11 accounts restricted because of Source of Funds (SOF) concerns, but he was allowed to open three more accounts and continue gambling.
Money laundering failures included:
- implementing a policy where customers were allowed to deposit £40,000 before carrying out SOF checks
- accepting verbal assurances from customers as to employment income and being reliant on open-source information to validate SOF
- not setting out which documents should be requested as part of SOF checks
- allowing one customer to spend £65,835 in just 5 months without SOF checks being carried out
- not effectively implementing its own policies which stated that customers have 10 days to present SOF documentation before their account was restricted. In one case a customer’s SOF were not requested until three weeks after the 10 day trigger and lost £15,000 during that period.
Midjiwan, the award-winning independent studio behind The Battle of Polytopia has today announced The Polytopia World Championship with a prize pool of $10,000 USD and a live final broadcast from Stockholm.
The Polytopia World Championship is set to launch this fall, uniting players from across the globe in an epic showdown of fast-paced strategic mastery. The tournament will be themed to Battle of the Tribes. Players will choose to compete with one of Polytopia’s 12 in-game tribes; each with a unique regional theme and skillset.
The tournament will begin with open qualifiers, giving everyone a chance to prove themselves. From there, players will advance through tribe-specific playoffs and head-to-head elimination rounds, each match bringing them one step closer to glory.
The top six players will earn a spot in the live finals in Stockholm on December 6: an in-person event streamed online for fans worldwide. In addition to live commentary of the tournament, the fan event will also provide behind-the-scenes content from the Midjiwan team.
The winner will be awarded a prize pool of $10,000; making this tournament the biggest competitive event in The Battle of Polytopia’s nine year history.
Christian Lovstedt, CEO of Midjiwan AB, commented: “This marks a major new step for Polytopia’s competitive scene, featuring a fresh tournament format and enhanced broadcasting that makes it even more exciting for viewers to watch, learn, and get inspired by the world’s top players.“
The matches will be played on the Polytopia Official Space on the Challengermode esports Platform.
The planned dates are:
September:
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Sep 13–14
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Sep 20–21
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Sep 27–28
October:
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Oct 4–5
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Oct 11–12
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Oct 18–19
November:
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Oct 25–26
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Nov 1–2
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Nov 8–9
Nov 22–23
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Faceoff
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Final Qualifier
Dec 6
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World Championship Live Event
The post THE BATTLE OF POLYTOPIA ANNOUNCES GLOBAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH $10,000 PRIZE POOL appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
SA Gaming is thrilled to announce the launch of Ultra Roulette! It is a thrilling new twist on traditional Roulette! Instead of giving a fixed payout like traditional Roulette offers, Ultra Roulette gives random numbers each round with “Ultra” bonus multipliers!
Ultra Roulette uses a single-zero Roulette, and comes with all available bet options offered in traditional Roulette – Split Bets, Street Bets, Corner Bets, etc. The biggest twist comes when the betting time ends – 1 to 5 random numbers will be assigned with a special multiplier known as an “Ultra” bonus multiplier, ranging from 50x to 1,000x – applied to straight bets only. This is truly a breathtaking experience as the payout is known after the countdown ends, giving unprecedented fun and excitement!
The post Electrifying twist on the traditional Roulette appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
A brand-new industry-facing name has been announced: Wildz Group™, powered by award-winning iGaming platform Rootz. In recognition of industry developments and company growth, Wildz Group™ has formed, as a collective of leading gambling entertainment brands.
The name directly references the Group’s iconic online casino and sports superbrand, Wildz.
Highlighting Our Products
The new Group will contain the Rootz Platform, powering the six existing gambling brands – Wildz™ Casino, Caxino™ Casino, Wheelz™ Casino, Spinz™ Casino, Chipz™ Casino, and Tuplaus™ Casino – with some exciting new additions in 2025 and beyond.
The leadership team believes Wildz Group will be the catalyst for even greater growth with suppliers, business partners, and collaborators across the gaming industry.
The post Wildz Group: iGaming Industry Leaders appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
THE BATTLE OF POLYTOPIA ANNOUNCES GLOBAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH $10,000 PRIZE POOL
Electrifying twist on the traditional Roulette
Wildz Group: iGaming Industry Leaders
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