{"id":4219,"date":"2023-03-28T10:15:19","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T10:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newbettingsites.co\/?p=4219"},"modified":"2023-03-28T10:15:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T10:15:19","slug":"william-hill-record-19-2-million-fine-for-widespread-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newbettingsites.co\/william-hill-record-19-2-million-fine-for-widespread-failures\/","title":{"rendered":"William Hill Record \u00a319.2 Million Fine For Widespread Failures"},"content":{"rendered":"
Apparently they knew it was coming, but even so, opening the post to see a fine for \u00a319.2 million staring back at you has got take the wind out of your sails.<\/p>\n
That’s what happened to William Hill this morning, who have now taken the crown from Entain as the bookie with the highest ever fine from the UK Gambling Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s all thanks to license conditions failings between May of 2020 and October of 2021, and it could have been a lot worse too.<\/p>\n The UKGC were this<\/em> close (i’m doing that thing with my thumb and index finger) to having their license suspended, and were only saved by the fact they acted quickly and are under new ownership.<\/p>\n There’s quite a lot to unpack here given Hill’s recent sale and re-sale, so let’s get into it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Social responsibility and anti money laundering failings are the problem, but the reason the fine is so big, is due to how widespread the problem was.<\/p>\n The list is incredibly long, and since the William Hill business is made up of several technically different businesses, it’s slightly complicated too.<\/p>\n The three elements of the overall William Hill business involved here, are WHG (International) Limited, which runs the William Hill website, Mr Green Limited which runs the Mr Green website that is owned by William Hill, and William Hill Organisation Limited which operates their high street premises.<\/p>\n The \u00a319.2 million fine has been divided as follows<\/a>:<\/p>\n We can see then that the worst of the failings fall at the door of WHG (International) Limited, or the William Hill online business in other words.<\/p>\n They have taken just over 65% of the fine, while Mr Green have to stump up a little over 19% and William Hill Organisation Ltd are responsible for the remaining 15.5% or so.<\/p>\n Getting more specific about what actually went wrong here, it may be easier to break it down by category.<\/p>\n This concerns occasions when William Hill should have spotted potentially harmful gambling behaviour, such as sudden big spends or unusual betting behaviour, and stepped in to check the customer was able to afford it.<\/p>\n As you can see from the very long list below, that wasn’t happening:<\/p>\n Soooooo yeah. Hard to defend yourself from that little lot I would imagine.<\/p>\n This is more to do with knowing who your customers are and ensuring that their money hasn’t come from the proceeds of crime.<\/p>\n Again, quite the rap sheet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you don’t already know, online gambling company 888 bought William Hill’s European assets<\/a> from Caesars in 2022, who had themselves bought the company<\/a> a year earlier.<\/p>\n This means that poor old 888 are footing the bill for something they weren’t even responsible for, as they did not own William Hill at the time the offences took place.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for 888 has said:<\/p>\n “The settlement relates to the period when William Hill was under the previous ownership and management.”<\/p>\n “After William Hill was acquired, the company quickly addressed the identified issues with the implementation of a rigorous action plan.”<\/p>\n “The entire group shares the [Gambling Commission’s] commitment to improve compliance standards across the industry and we will continue to work collaboratively with the regulator and other stakeholders to achieve this.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat Have William Hill Been Fined For?<\/h2>\n
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\n \nCompany<\/th>\n Fine<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n WHG (International) Limited<\/td>\n \u00a312.5 Million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Mr Green Limited<\/td>\n \u00a33.7 Million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n William Hill Organisation Limited<\/td>\n \u00a33 Million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Social Responsibility Failings<\/h3>\n
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Anti Money Laundering Failings<\/h3>\n
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Loss of License and Impact on 888<\/h2>\n