The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) recently fined Aspers’ Stratford City Casino a £652,500 fine for failing to put proper player protection measures in place. The casino did not comply with use-of-cash, social responsibility, and money laundering regulations.

UKGC investigated a suicide

The regulator launched an investigation after the death by suicide of a casino patron in December 2018. He had visited the casino a few hours before his death. The Commission established that there was a fundamental weakness in the loose cash policy of the firm.

37-year-old Huseyin Yaman visited the casino and lost £25,000 in one night on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) and roulettes at east London’s Aspers Casino at the Westfield Shopping Centre located in Stratford. Yaman owned a stake in a Turkish supermarket and left the casino distressed. He took his life in his north London apartment hours after he left the venue.

Chief executive of the UK Gambling Commission, Neil McArthur commented on the case and said,

“The circumstances of the death were investigated by both the police and the coroner. As the regulator, we examined the casino’s management of the individual and found failings around the company’s anti-money laundering, social responsibility and customer interaction procedures.”

What does investigation show?

Yaman constantly spends huge sums of cash at the casino. On September 2 and 3, 2017 he spent £46,920 and £51,000 in cash at the venue without facing any enquiries from the business. Between September and November 2018, he made three more cash purchases of £5,190, £5,660, and £6,100. The last purchase was made just one day before his death.

The UKGC found non-compliance with regulatory requirements like customer interaction policy, social responsibility, and anti-money laundering. It also had an inadequate process that allows a user to incur major losses at the venue. Aspers has been issued a warning alongside the fine for its compliance failures. Aspers Stratford has also agreed to divest a sum of £78,233 which it received because of its failures from Yaman and another customer.