December 15 2015
The Gambling Commission (the Commission) has identified a number of serious weaknesses in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) controls used by Caesars Entertainment (UK) Ltd (Caesars) to mitigate the risk of money laundering occurring in its casinos. Caesars has co-operated fully and openly with the Commission in this respect and has acknowledged its shortcomings. It has proposed, and the Commission has accepted, a voluntary settlement pre-empting the need for a full investigation or licence review.
In accordance with our Statement of principles for licensing and regulation the Commission has accepted a voluntary settlement from Caesars consisting of:
- Immediate action to rectify the specific matters raised by the Commission
- An independent external provider will review Caesars’ AML policies and processes. This will be done at Caesars’ expense, within an agreed timeframe, and will be shared in its entirety with the Commission
- Implementation of an action plan that addresses any further weaknesses identified by the third party review of its AML risk and controls
- The publication of this public statement to draw the issues to the attention of the wider industry to provide an opportunity for others to improve
- An agreement to disseminate learning from the shortcomings identified through seminars or other forms of direct engagement with other gambling operators
- Caesars does not wish to profit from the compliance failures identified. It therefore agrees to divest itself of £845,000 to be applied to agreed socially responsible purposes.