Four online casinos ordered to pay out total of £4.5 million in gambling probe

Four online casino firms will pay a total of £4.5 million for failing to keep customers safe from gambling harm and prevent money laundering.

InTouch Games will pay £2.2 million, Betit Operations will pay £1.4 million, MT Secure Trade will pay £700,000 and BestBet will pay £230,972 as part of the Gambling Commission’s ongoing investigation into the online casino sector.

Over the last 18 months the regulator has assessed 123 online operators. Of these, 45 were ordered to raise standards. Another five operators have surrendered their licences.

In November, nearly £14 million in penalty packages were paid by three companies as result of their failings to put in place effective safeguards to prevent money laundering and keep consumers safe from gambling-related harm.

Gambling Commission executive director Richard Watson said: “We have been working hard to raise standards in the online industry to ensure that gambling is crime-free and that the one in five people in Britain who gamble online every month can do so safely.

“But our work will not stop here. As a regulator, we will continue to set and enforce standards that the industry must comply with to protect consumers.

“We expect operators to know their customers and to ask the right questions to make sure they meet their anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations.”