The Football Pools hit with regulatory action due to AML failures

The Football Pools Faces £375,000 Penalty from UK Gambling Commission for AML and Customer Care Failings

On March 27, the UK Gambling Commission announced regulatory measures against The Football Pools, requiring the operator to pay £375,000 (€449,732/$484,417) due to significant anti-money laundering (AML) shortfalls and deficiencies in customer care protocols.

The Gambling Commission’s findings indicated that The Football Pools, which operates four websites in the UK, failed to adhere to essential licence conditions and codes of practice. Specifically, the operator’s processes did not automatically initiate critical interventions upon reaching predetermined AML thresholds, only activating “hard stops” during intermittent manual reviews.

“Manual reviews were not conducted promptly, resulting in inadequate intervention measures,” stated the Commission in its detailed report. “This lapse meant that hard stops, necessary to mitigate risk, were not enforced in a timely manner.”

The investigation revealed that The Football Pools had become “overly reliant” on financial indicators for detecting customers exhibiting high risks associated with terrorist financing and money laundering. This approach proved ineffective, as there were significant delays—averaging 25 days—in establishing necessary risk profiles once financial red flags were raised, with instances where profiles were never created at all.

John Pierce, Director of Enforcement at the Gambling Commission, emphasized the implications of this oversight: “The operator’s approach to AML risk profiling is clearly insufficient. Allowing high-risk engagement on its platforms without undertaking necessary enhanced due diligence checks is unacceptable.”

The Commission’s investigation spanned from September 2022 to August 2023, culminating in a settlement agreement in which The Football Pools accepted a financial penalty in light of its compliance failings.

Additionally, the operator was cited for violations relating to its social responsibility licence obligations. Specifically, the Commission identified an “ineffective” internal system that led to delays in implementing safer gambling measures, revealing an over-reliance on high thresholds for financial triggers.

There were significant concerns regarding the lack of systematic reviews regarding customer interactions. In numerous instances, players engaged in prolonged gambling sessions and made substantial deposits in short timeframes without any protective actions being taken. Alarmingly, the system neglected to send safer gambling messages to users who had opted out of marketing communications.

Compounding these challenges, the Gambling Commission reported that The Football Pools had a substantial backlog of incomplete risk profiles, primarily attributed to staffing shortages. Although the operator had several financial triggers designed to identify potential gambling-related harm, customers were often not engaged following the activation of these alerts.

“While we acknowledge the necessary improvements implemented by the licensee since the compliance assessment, the Commission will take stringent actions if standards are not consistently met in the future,” concluded the regulator, signaling a commitment to uphold the integrity of the gambling industry.