UK Gambling Commission PUNISHES GGPoker: £672K Fine

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission, or the UKGC, has been steadily penalizing gambling operators who run afoul of its rules and regulations. The bulk of these penalties are related to failures relating to problem gamblers and keeping at-risk customers safe. The most recent enforcement action was against a company known as NSUS limited and was taken on Oct. 12, 2022. This firm operates the online poker site GGPoker.

The UKGC has ordered NSUS Limited to pay a £672,829 ($750,000) penalty for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures. NSUS Limited trades as GGPoker and ggpoker.co.uk, which is one of the most popular online poker platforms worldwide. The UKGC asserts that NSUS Limited failed to identify customers who may be at risk of experiencing harm from gambling.

The UKGC has taken on the responsibility of ensuring that gaming operators follow a strict set of guidelines in order to prevent gambling addiction and illegal money laundering. In general, guidelines like these are a good thing as they help keep the industry fair and players safe.

The problem here is that many people take issue with the UKGC's enforcement strategies. It appears on the surface that the UKGC has done little to combat problem gambling while continuing to monetarily penalize operators.

What is NSUS Limited?

NSUS Limited is a privately-held company specializing in online gaming. NSUS Limited is responsible for the operation of GGPoker and the UK iteration ggpoker.co.uk. GGPoker is a popular online poker website that is well known for a number of somewhat unique technological implementations, including advanced animations and graphics, and grinder-friendly benefits like hand tracking and statistics on your opponents.

An excerpt from the What We Do page on the NSUS Limited website

GGPoker has risen dramatically in popularity in recent times by recruiting numerous poker pros as ambassadors and offering unique features in its software. Notable players associated with GGPoker include Daniel Negreanu, Fedor Holz, “ElkY” Grospellier, Jeff Gross, and Kevin Martin.

The homepage of the GGPoker.co.uk website

Why is NSUS Limited Being Penalized?

The UKGC has ordered NSUS Limited to hand over £672,829 ($750,000) for failures in regard to social responsibility and anti-money laundering guidelines. The failures listed in the penalty are included below:

• Failed to identify customers that were at risk or experiencing harms associated with gambling.
• Failed to interact with customers who were potentially at risk of experiencing harm associated with gambling
• Failed to take steps to prevent marketing material from being sent to self-excluded customers as 125 marketing emails were sent to self-excluded players.
• Failed to conduct reasonable risk assessments of its business being utilised for money laundering.
• Failed to ensure appropriate procedures, controls, and policies were in place to prevent terrorist financing and money laundering.

Compared to previous penalties issued by the UKGC, the failures listed above seem to be fairly vague. Usually, the UKGC will clearly assert the details associated with the failures, but this time, the statements are somewhat general. We are unsure as to why this might be the case.

Details of the Penalty

The penalty is a bit unclear in the specific violations besides the fact that 125 marketing emails were sent to self-excluded players, but it does address which rules and regulations were violated. The UGKC found that NSUS Limited breached paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 of licence condition 12.1.1 as well as licence condition 12.1.2, which both relate to anti-money laundering.

In addition, the UKGC asserts that NSUS failed to comply with the social responsibility code of practice, also known as SRCP, 3.4.1. This failure is related to a lack of customer interaction specifically in reference to failing to communicate with potential problem gamblers.

The Commission has decided to impose a warning under section 117 of the Gambling Act 2005 in addition to the financial penalty of £672,829 ($750,000) under section 121 of the Gambling Act.

The UKGC has Been Regularly Penalizing Operators

Back on Aug. 17 of this year, the UKGC levied the largest fine of all time when it ordered the Entain Group to pay £17 million ($19 million). Prior to this year, the largest such enforcement had taken place when the UKGC ordered Caesars to pay £13 million ($14.4 million) in fines.

Another example of recent enforcement took place in September of this year when the UKGC fined Oddsking and Betfred £2.9 million ($3.2 million).

The UKGC has continually enforced its rules by fining operators for similar violations related to anti-money laundering and social responsibility dating back to at least 2018. In June of that year, the UKGC fined 32Red £2 million ($2.23 million). Only a few months later, Paddy Power Betfair was fined over £2.2 million ($2.45 million) by the UKGC.

Plenty of Safe Places to Gamble Online in UK and Worldwide

Although the UKGC has continually enforced its rules and regulations by imposing sanctions and fines, there are still plenty of safe gambling sites available to UK customers as well as other worldwide locations. Our experts recommend that UK customers play at an offshore operator like TigerGaming.com. TigerGaming also accepts players from many other countries besides the U.K.

TigerGaming.com boasts a wide variety of casino games, poker, and sports betting and it maintains an excellent reputation in the gaming industry. To find out more about this trusted operator, please feel free to check out our exhaustive review of TigerGaming.

If you are an Australian poker player who may be searching for a safe site to play online poker, please feel free to peruse our extensive guide to online poker in Australia.

U.S. poker players may wish to explore our comprehensive list of the best offshore poker sites for U.S. players.