Gambling Commission slaps L & L Europe with massive fine
The UK Gambling Commission has ordered online casino operator L & L Europe to pay £900,000 following an investigation that uncovered unfair withdrawal restrictions, inadequate anti-money laundering procedures and failures to protect vulnerable customers.
The company operates seven gambling websites, including All British Casino, Casino Casino and Hyper Casino.
The regulator found that L & L Europe had imposed a condition preventing customers from requesting another withdrawal until their previous request had been authorised.
It also identified a practice of manually reviewing every fifth or tenth withdrawal for certain customers, sometimes requiring additional documentation that could reasonably have been obtained before the withdrawal request.
The UK gambling regulator concluded that these practices breached consumer protection requirements.
Investigators also identified serious shortcomings in the operator’s responsible gambling controls.
One customer aged 18 lost £4,000 within eight minutes of opening an account, while another customer, aged 21, lost £6,500 within three days. The regulator found that relevant risk indicators had not been adequately addressed.
Further breaches involved anti-money laundering checks, inconsistent safer gambling alerts across the company’s websites and failures to assess whether customer protection measures were effective.
Sue Young, the Commission’s executive director of operations, said customers should be able to access their winnings without unnecessary restrictions.
“A basic expectation is that when you have winnings you can withdraw those swiftly,” Young said.
The £900,000 payment forms part of a regulatory settlement rather than a court-imposed fine. L & L Europe also agreed to contribute towards investigation costs and implement improvements.
The case reinforces the Commission’s position that licensed online casinos in the UK cannot routinely delay withdrawals by requesting verification information that should have been collected earlier.
