The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA), the Spillemyndigheden, has reprimanded bet365 for a compliance failure relating to two licensing conditions. 

Referring to the sports betting and igaming brand by the name of its business entity Hillside (New Media) Ltd, the Danish regulator stated that bet365 had allowed a ‘young player’ to deposit DKK 190,000 (€25,500) to his account in under a year.

This was done without the company holding ‘sufficient knowledge of whether the player’s funds originated from criminal matters’.

Additionally, the DGA asserted that bet365 should have taken the opportunity to investigate the origin of the funds ‘in more detail’ due to the age of the player compared to the amount paid. 

The firm could have done this by obtaining more information on income conditions, Spillemyndigheden continued, but since no investigations had been conducted there were no notes on the player. 

Hillside/bet365’s actions were therefore in violation of customer due diligence procedures as well as investigation and listing obligations under the terms of Denmark’s Money Laundering Act.

However, although acknowledging the violation of licensing obligations, the Authority has made the decision not to enforce any action – such as a financial penalty – against bet365. 

The DGA explained: “The Gambling Authority notes that the rules on customer due diligence procedures, duty to investigate and duty to list are absolutely fundamental in the Money Laundering Act, and violation of the rules leads as a clear starting point to injunctions or reprimands or, in serious or repeated cases, to police reporting. 

“The prosecution does not entail any duty of action for Hillside, as Hillside has subsequently introduced new business procedures for customer knowledge procedures and investigation.”

The DGA’s reprimand of bet365 comes shortly after the authority revealed that compliance checks into gambling arcades and pubs had resulted in the opening of over 250 criminal cases between 2019 and 2021. 

Additionally, the regulator also updated Danish gambling industry stakeholders earlier this year that it had blocked a total of 55 websites for illegal/unlicensed gambling during 2021, the highest figure in a single year.