The Gambling Commission has published a public statement setting out how a software and casino game host licence holder supplied online games to unlicensed gambling businesses.
Evolution Malta Holding Limited will pay a £4.75 million settlement after a Commission investigation revealed its games appeared on six unlicensed websites accessible to consumers in Great Britain (GB).
During the investigation it was established that Evolution’s risk assessment of whether their business could be used for money laundering and terrorist financing was not effective enough to flag that two operators it conducted business with were supplying its games to consumers in Great Britain without holding a Commission licence.
Between December 2023 and November 2024 there were large volumes of visits to the six websites by UK consumers.
Evolution breached regulations by not taking appropriate steps to identify and assess the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, not establishing and maintaining effective policies, procedure and controls needed to ensure that its games were not made available in the GB market by unlicensed operators, and not complying with customer due diligence requirements.
John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, said: “This case exposed serious weaknesses in Evolution’s anti-money laundering risk assessment and its oversight of risks within its supply chain.
“The company’s AML risk assessment was outdated and failed to adequately consider the risk of its games being made available through unlicensed operators. As a result, there was a significant gap between the controls on paper and their effectiveness in practice.
“The Commission’s investigation and testing uncovered failings that were serious enough for us to consider licence suspension.
“Evolution responded swiftly and comprehensively once these issues were identified, taking immediate action to strengthen its controls and address our concerns. Our subsequent testing has not identified any further instances of concern.
“However, this case provides an important lesson for the industry. Operators must ensure their risk assessments are current, regularly tested and reflective of real-world risks. They need to understand who they are supplying their games to, how and where those games are being accessed in practice, and maintain effective ongoing controls that give them confidence their products are not supporting illegal gambling.
“Operators should be under no illusion. We will continue to proactively monitor and test the market to identify licensed products being made available through illegal operators targeting consumers in Great Britain. Where we find failings, we will take decisive regulatory action.”
