888 Makes The Danish Gambling Authority’s Naughty List This Festive Season

The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) has definitely added 888 Casino to their naughty list this holiday season for not taking the necessary precautions to protect their players against problematic spending.

✓Turning A Blind Eye

The Gambling Authority took issue with the transaction history of a particular player where 888 was found to have willingly continued to allow the player to deposit vast sums even after they refused to comply with mandatory documentation requests.

The player in question deposited around DKK 600,000 (€80,000) within a few days of the opening of their account, at which time, in keeping with the Gambling Authority’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act, 888 Denmark requested the submission of documentation proving his income and assets.

The player blankly refused to submit the legally required documentation and by rights should have had his account suspended. However, 888 continued to allow the player to deposit for a further month by which time his total deposits amounted to in excess of DKK 1 million (€134,000).

✓Just A Rap On The Knuckles

The Danish Gambling Authority said the following of 888’s lack of action in this case:

“888 Denmark Limited has failed to fulfil their obligation under section 26(1), to report to the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime, by knowledge, suspicion or reasonable reason to suspect that a transaction, funds or activity is or has been associated with money laundering.”

Despite what feels like an intentional decision to allow unsanctioned deposits by a player refusing to supply the legally required documentation the Gambling Authority have chosen to see this as an isolated incident and only require that 888 update, and thereafter strictly adhere to, their AML policies and procedures so as to “prevent the possibility of money laundering at an earlier stage and to report to the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime in similar cases”.

With many other regulatory bodies handing stiff fines and penalties for such inaction 888 must surely feel that the DGA is feeling the effects of the silly season.

✓2020 Won’t Be So Easy

Had this case come a month later 888 might have found themselves having a far more hostile conversation with the Gambling Authority given the amendments to the certification program, particularly the subsections dealing with Responsible Gambling.

As of 1 January 2020, the new terms below comes into effect for all DGA licenced casinos:

“Changes to section 3.3.2 about customer self-limitation. The changes in this section are a result of amendments to the executive orders. From now on, it is mandatory for a customer to set a deposit limit before being able to play.”

This term assumes that the licence holder enforced preset deposit limits and is actively pursuant of the necessary asset and income documents required to support high-value wagers before the bets are placed.

It will be interesting to watch and see how the DGA enforces this with high rollers who simply refuse to comply as this player did. Does their soft stance of 888 create an environment where operators take the risk, or will these new terms come with harsher penalties for offending parties?