Some Gibraltar-licensed online gambling operators have agreed to pay £2.5m as penance for their shoddy anti-money laundering (AML) controls. 

On Wednesday, the Gibraltar government’s Gambling Division announced the completion of a 12-month ‘thematic review’ of its customer-facing online gambling licensees’ AML risk assessment processes and controls with respect to the companies’ non-UK international customers. 

The review identified “a number of historical control weaknesses,” including risk tolerances that were “too great” as well as “slow or ineffective” timing on interventions. “Several” operators were found to have accepted deposits from an individual who’d stolen the sums from their employer, then forged documents and provided bogus information to explain the source of their wealth.

The review warned all licensees to conduct enhanced due diligence on their high-rolling customers “irrespective of whether or not their losses are high.” Operators must also have tools to identify “sudden and significant increases in the velocity of transactions” and to ensure that management is made aware of these increases to determine whether further action is required.