Legislation
UK – Gambling Commission outlines further action against licence holders at Caesars UK
By Phil - 4 March 2021
The British Gambling Commission has taken further action against Personal Management Licence (PML) holders at Caesars Entertainment.
In April 2020 the regulator announced that Caesars Entertainment UK Limited would have to pay £13m and implement a series of improvements following a catalogue of failures including those involving ‘VIPs’.
The investigation into PML holders was launched because there were concerns they had failed to take all reasonable steps to ensure the way in which they carry out their responsibilities in relation to licensed activities does not place the holder of the operating or any relevant premises licence in breach of their licence conditions.
As a result of the investigation, seven PML holders have had licence warnings issued, two PML holders received advice to conduct letters and three PML holders surrendered their licence following notification that their licence had been placed under review.
In addition, one PML holder surrendered their licence whilst subject to investigation but prior to notification of a licence review, one PML holder who was under investigation was subject to revocation due to non-payment of licence fees and 18 PML holders received an advice to conduct letter outside the review process.
In a separate incident, one Caesars’ PML holder had his licence revoked following an altercation with a guest at his place of work.
The Commission’s sanctions register has been updated to reflect the regulatory decisions.
Richard Watson, Commission Executive Director, said: “All personal licence holders should be aware that they will be held accountable, where appropriate, for the regulatory failings within the operators they manage.”
The case related to a catalogue of social responsibility, money laundering and customer interaction failures including those involving ‘VIPs’. The land-based gambling business, which operates 11 casinos across Britain, was found guilty of serious systematic failings in the way the company took decisions about VIP customers between January 2016 and December 2018. Social responsibility failings included inadequate interaction with customers who were known to have previously self-excluded or who had displayed signs of problem gambling which included 30 sessions exceeding five hours.
The operator also didn’t carry out adequate source of funds checks with one customer allowed to spend around £3.5m and lose £1.6m over a period of three months.
