Corbett Bookmakers to pay £686,000 UKGC fine amid anti-money laundering failings

Gambling Commission

Corbett Bookmakers — a Welsh land-based bookie — has been fined £686,070 by the UK Gambling Commission.

The operator, which oversees 36 land-based venues across Britain, has been found guilty of failing to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) measures. 

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News of the substantial fine comes by way of a public statement from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). According to the regulatory authority, a UKGC-led investigation unveiled multiple critical deficiencies spanning AML and social responsibility issues. 

A two-day “compliance assessment” undertaken by the UKGC revealed considerable failures between May 2022 and February 2024. 

Among the findings was a consistent disregard for now-industry-standard ‘know your customer’ (KYC) rules. In one striking example of the bookmaker’s malpractice, the operator accepted £47,000 in bets from an individual over an eight-month period without evaluating the origin or legitimacy of the customer’s funds. 

The UKGC discovered that the customer had lost £14,000 as a direct result of these wagers.

Also of concern were insufficient identity checks; in a 13-day window, Corbett Bookmakers accepted stakes worth £23,674 from a customer who “may be at risk of or experiencing harms associated with gambling.”

Other social responsibility misdemeanours saw the Welsh bookmaker take 56 bets from one consumer over the course of four hours. The individual’s losses totalled £3,523.

On another occasion, a customer wagered £47,416 and lost £6,741 in fewer than three months. The UKGC determined that Corbett Bookmakers “failed to adequately interact with” the individual throughout this stretch of time.

Money laundering and terrorist risk assessments also posed concerns for the UKGC, as the bookmaker’s in-house analysis of “customer, product, geographic and payment risks” fell below industry standards. 

Therefore, the UKGC concluded that Corbett Bookmakers did not satisfactorily uphold a “risk-based” anti-money laundering strategy.

In addition to the significant fine administered by the UKGC, Corbett Bookmakers will be subject to a third-party audit to confirm that its AML and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls meet modern security standards. 

UKGC commission director of enforcement, John Pierce, admonished Corbett Bookmakers in comments released within the report: “This operator has failed to adhere to vital regulations designed to make gambling safer and free from criminal activity.

“As a result, it will not only pay a significant fine but also undergo a rigorous audit to ensure full compliance with anti-money laundering and safer gambling measures.”

Pierce continued to set out a framework for future Corbett operations: "In addition to the remedial actions already taken, we expect the operator to swiftly and fully implement the audit recommendations, demonstrating clear and measurable improvements in both policy and practice. 

“Failure to do so will prompt our compliance team to reassess the situation and take further action as necessary."

This infraction represents the second regulatory breach by Corbett Bookmakers since 2022, when the operator was fined £216,000 for AML and safer gambling violations.