Regulatory Enforcement and Settlement Details
The Gambling Commission has published a public statement revealing that Evolution Malta Holding Limited will pay a £4.75 million regulatory settlement following an investigation. The inquiry established that Evolution supplied online games to six unlicensed websites accessible to consumers in Great Britain.
During the investigation, it was determined that Evolution’s risk assessment regarding money laundering and terrorist financing was ineffective, failing to flag that two operators it conducted business with were supplying its games to British consumers without holding a valid Commission licence. Between December 2023 and November 2024, large volumes of visits to the six websites were recorded by UK consumers.
Consequently, Evolution breached regulations by failing to appropriately identify and assess money laundering risks, maintain effective policies and controls to prevent unlicensed market access, and comply with customer due diligence requirements.
Regulatory Commentary and Industry Warning
Addressing the severity of the infractions, John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement, stated:
“This case exposed serious weaknesses in Evolution’s money laundering risk assessment and its oversight of risks within its supply chain. The company’s money laundering risk assessment was outdated and failed to adequately consider the risk of its games being made available through unlicensed operators. As a result, there was a significant gap between the controls on paper and their effectiveness in practice”.
He noted that the failings were serious enough to warrant considering a licence suspension, though Evolution responded swiftly by strengthening its controls and addressing concerns, with subsequent testing revealing no further issues.
Emphasizing the broader lesson for the industry, Pierce concluded:
“Operators must ensure their risk assessments are current, regularly tested and reflective of real-world risks. They need to understand who they are supplying their games to, how and where those games are being accessed in practice, and maintain effective ongoing controls that give them confidence their products are not supporting illegal gambling”. He warned that the Commission will continue proactively monitoring and testing the market to take decisive regulatory action against illegal operators and licensed products reaching Great Britain consumers.
