William Hill let new customer bet £23,000 in 20 minutes

Three gambling firms owned by William Hill are to pay penalties of £19.2m for failing to protect consumers and weak anti-money laundering controls.

The record penalty comes after the Gambling Commission found new customers were able to bet large sums over short periods without proper checks.

In one case, a customer was allowed to open a new account and spend £23,000 in 20 minutes without any checks.

The commission "seriously considered" suspending William Hill's licence.

It found several failures to guard against possible money laundering, with customers allowed to deposit large amounts without the business conducting appropriate checks.

One person was able to spend and lose £70,134 in a month, while another deposited £73,535 and lost £14,068 in four months.

"When we launched this investigation the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming serious consideration was given to licence suspension," said Andrew Rhodes, the Gambling Commission's chief executive, said:

"However, because the operator immediately recognised their failings and worked with us to swiftly implement improvements, we instead opted for the largest enforcement payment in our history."

Under the conditions of betting firms' licences, companies must carry out checks to identify and contact customers who might be at risk of harm from gambling.

They must also check that the money being used to gamble comes from a legitimate source and is not associated with, or being used to support, criminal activity.

The issues uncovered by the commission between January 2020 and October 2021 included:

• one person was allowed to open a new account and bet £32,500 over two days without any checks

• the group failed to identify customers who were at risk of experiencing gambling related harm. In one instance, a customer lost £14,902 in 70 minutes

• the group failed to apply a 24-hour delay between receiving requests for an increase in a credit limit and granting it. One customer was allowed to place a £100,000 bet immediately, even though he had a £70,000 credit limit

• customers were able to place large bets without sufficient checks on the source of the funds being carried out

• the group failed to ask for source of funds evidence when one customer staked £19,000 in a single bet, and did the same in another case when a punter bet £39,324 and lost £20,360 over 12 days.

William Hill was taken over last year by 888 Holdings, an international gambling group that said recently it expected to report revenues of £1.85bn for 2022, with adjusted earnings of £310m.

888 said the problems had happened under the previous ownership, and after it bought William Hill "the company quickly addressed the identified issues with the implementation of a rigorous action plan".

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Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Mr Rhodes said: "The reason we have the requirements to have controls in place is to stop people being able to spend such large amounts of money so quickly without intervention.

"It may be that they can't afford it, it may be that it's a choice they want to make, but we have to have safeguards in place, and William Hill accept that they simply didn't have them at this time."

He said on average 22.5 million people gambled each year, each spending less than £300 in total.

"So if somebody is spending an unusual amount then we would expect to see intervention. That is what should have happened here," Mr Rhodes said.

Where to get help on gambling

Charity GamCare, which provides information, advice and support for anyone affected by gambling problems, suggests the following steps if you feel your gambling is going too far:

• Talk to a friend or a family member. Even if they may not be able to help immediately, sharing any concerns you have can be an important first step to stop your gambling from escalating

• Restrict access to gambling websites. Using practical tools can help. Gamban is a software provider that blocks access to betting websites, and you can also self-exclude from websites through Gamstop for free

• Put banking blocks on your card. Many retail banks now offer the ability to block transactions to gambling companies.

For other sources of help, the NHS addiction support website outlines what assistance is available.

GamCare operates the National Gambling Helpline - advisers are available 24 hours a day on Freephone 0808 8020 133 or via web chat.

Gamblers Anonymous provides a list of support meetings for problem gamblers in Scotland here and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland here.

Further sources of support can be found on the BBC Action Line page.

Under the settlement with the William Hill Group, WHG (International), which runs williamhill.com, will pay £12.5m, Mr Green, which runs mrgreen.com, will pay £3.7m and William Hill Organization, which runs more than 1,300 betting outlets across Britain, will pay £3m.

The £19.2m collected from the penalties will go towards "socially responsible" good causes.

The previous largest penalty imposed by the Gambling Commission was £17m against Entain last year.

Despite the penalties, Mr Rhodes said there were now "signs of improvement" in gambling operators' behaviour.

"There are indications that the industry is doing more to make gambling safer and reducing the possibility of criminal funds entering their businesses," he said.