Videoslots Limited fined £650,000 by UKGC
Videoslots Limited has been ordered to pay a £650,000 financial penalty after a Gambling Commission investigation uncovered serious failures in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and social responsibility controls. The operator, which runs videoslots.co.uk, mrvegas.com and megariches.com, has also received an official warning. In addition, it must undergo an independent third-party audit to test whether its safer gambling and AML frameworks work in practice.
Deposit Limits and Safer Gambling Systems Under Scrutiny
The Commission found that Videoslots relied on systems which did not effectively monitor customer activity or detect clear signs of harm. A central issue was the design of monthly deposit limits. These limits ran on a calendar-month basis and did not include a customer’s initial deposit, which allowed players to lose more than their stated caps.
As a result, one customer lost £5,000 in a month despite having a £3,000 deposit limit, while another lost £5,000 in less than 24 hours under the same limit. A third customer was able to lose £7,500 over 18 days, even though their monthly limit had been set at £2,000.
The investigation also highlighted failures to identify and interact with at-risk customers in a timely way. In one case, a player lost £6,550 over three active days of gambling across two months without receiving any meaningful safer gambling contact from the operator. John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, said:
“Operators are required to have effective Social Responsibility and Anti-Money Laundering policies, procedures and controls as a condition of holding an operating licence. In this case, the operator’s monthly deposit limits were found to be ineffective when tested in practice and AML controls were not applied to the standards we expect.
The investigation identified a serious example where pre-paid digital vouchers had been used for gambling without effective oversight and early intervention. The over-reliance on an algorithm to monitor risk meant that the customer was able to carry out a high volume of deposits and transfer the proceeds of gambling to multiple different destination accounts with insufficient and timely checks or robust source of funds verification taking place.
Alongside this, the acceptance of digital vouchers as a method of payment also requires robust controls from a safer gambling perspective, particularly where it is possible to purchase digital vouchers using credit or crypto via third party websites.”
Algorithmic AML Weaknesses and High-risk Payment Methods
The Commission also identified significant AML and Counter-Terrorist Financing shortcomings. These included gaps in policies and procedures, poor record-keeping and an over-reliance on an algorithmic risk-scoring tool. In one example, a customer used digital pre-payment vouchers worth more than £75,000 over 16 days, then moved gambling proceeds to four separate bank accounts.
The customer also accessed the account from outside Great Britain, yet the automated risk score did not reach the threshold for a source-of-funds request. This led to unacceptable delays in reviewing the account and meant that customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring were not effective.
In another case, Videoslots assumed that high levels of deposits and withdrawals were funded from recycled winnings and did not escalate the risk profile or properly validate affordability. The Commission concluded that open-loop payment methods, such as digital vouchers, require much stronger controls and earlier intervention. Pierce stressed that these systems present particular risks in a gambling context. He said:
“Open-loop payment systems are high risk in nature because they could enable anonymous deposits and make it harder to trace funds. In this case, the licensee failed to implement timely customer interactions and did not conduct enhanced customer du e diligence until the customer had reached significant spend thresholds – such failings are unacceptable.
“Operators must review how open-loop payment systems such as prepaid digital vouchers are managed in a gambling environment because they are high risk and present operational challenges in terms of effective monitoring. Whilst our position on the use of open loop payment systems has not changed, we have updated our risk information on our website to reflect our concerns about digital vouchers.”
Any operator using similar digital card or voucher schemes must now report this to the Commission as a key event if it has not already done so. The regulator has also urged licensees to review its October 2025 risk update on emerging money laundering and terrorist financing threats. Pierce added that, alongside the financial penalty and remedial steps already taken by Videoslots, the Commission will closely monitor the outcome of the independent audit required as part of the settlement.