The Gambling Commission has fined William Hill £19.2 million, the largest penalty in the regulator’s history, for having insufficient controls in place to protect new customers.
In one case a customer was allowed to open a new account and spend £23,000 in 20 minutes without any checks while another customer was allowed to open an account and spend £18,000 in 24 hours without any checks.
The cases took place before 888’s acquisition of William Hill. 888 took a £15 million provision at the time of the deal to cover a possible fine.
Andrew Rhodes, Gambling Commission chief executive, said: “When we launched this investigation the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming, serious consideration was given to licence suspension.”
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