Spend triggers, interaction with customers, inadequate information: a look at LeoVegas’ £1.3m fine

On Wednesday, iGaming news platforms were awash with the news that LeoVegas has been ordered to pay a £1.3 million fine (€1.6 million) after the Great Britain Gambling Commission identified several shortcomings – most of which relate to setting triggers too high.

The Commission identified the shortcomings during a review of the mobile-first, online gambling operator’s licence, covering the period between October 2019 and October 2020. It found that LeoVegas was in breach of several licence conditions.

What were the failings?

Firstly, the regulator warned that LeoVegas’ social responsibility towards safer gambling was inadequate after it found the company had set spend triggers for safer gambling team customer reviews significantly higher than an average player’s spend, without justifications as to why it chose to set such high limits.

The regulator also flagged how the company set a 45-minute cool off period after six hours of play, without explaining the reasoning behind why it thought the six-hour limit to be appropriate.

Apart from issues with triggers, the regulator said LeoVegas did not act on its own internal company policy of interacting with customers who had denied deposits, cancelled gambling sessions, long gaming sessions as well as withdrawals that took place late at night or very early in the morning.

On customer interaction, the Commission called out LeoVegas for not following guidance the regulator set in 2019 on the topic to a satisfactory level.

On the anti-money laundering (AML) front, the Commission remarked that LeoVegas “relied too heavily on ineffective threshold triggers and inadequate information” to establish how much a player was able to spend sustainably.

In terms of KYC, the regulator said that the operator did not do enough to stop players, which it knew little about from a due diligence perspective, from spending large amounts of money in a short space of time.

“This case is a further example of operators failing to protect customers and failing to be alive to money laundering risks within their business,” the regulator said.  

LeoVegas runs and operates Leovegas.com, Slotboss.co.uk, Pinkcasino.co.uk, Betuk.com and 21.co.uk, will received an official warning from the Commission and be subject to an audit to ensure shortcomings are effectively dealt with.

The company was lauded for full cooperation throughout the investigation, while the regulator said it has taken appropriate action to address the failings.