Three of William Hill's bookmakers in the United Kingdom must pay a combined £19.2 million for social responsibility and money laundering failings

William Hill Group, one of the UK's largest bookmakers, has received a record fine from the Gambling Commission (UKGC). The gambling company received three fines totalling £19.2 million (€21.84 million) for its three brands.

Breaching rules on responsible gambling and money laundering

Earlier this month, rumours circulated that William Hill would face a record fine. There are already suspicions that the fine will exceed the highest ever imposed by the Gambling Commission. Fines totalling £17 million (€19.34 million) were awarded to Entain. William Hill was fined for breaching rules on responsible gambling and money laundering. The three fined brands were wrong on both fronts. Offences so serious that driving licence revocation is even being considered

Earlier, it emerged that Entain is not the only major bookmaker to be fined by the UKGC. In total, the regulator has imposed 26 penalties totalling more than £76 million (€86.45 million) since the beginning of last year. Kindred was fined last week. Kindred was fined for infringing the Unibet and 32Red brands.

What do they keep doing wrong according to the UK betting commission

There were insufficient controls to protect new customers and to effectively account for high-speed spending and playing time until the customer could be exposed to the risk of significant losses in a short time:

• One customer was allowed to open a new account and spend £23,000 in 20 minutes without any controls.
• Another customer was allowed to open an account and spend £18,000 in 24 hours without any control.
• And a third customer was allowed to open a new account and spend £32,500 in two days without any checks. (Mr Green)
• Failure to identify certain customers at risk of gambling harm and failure to carry out checks early in the customer's journey - one customer lost GBP14 902 in 70 minutes (Mr Green).
• Failure to identify the risk of harm early enough or intervene with certain customers - a customer lost GBP54 252 in four weeks without the operator collecting evidence of earnings, conducting adequate checks or using any other effective method to identify the risk of harm. (WHG (International) Limited)