Gambling Commission suspends BGO licence for “failing to protect consumers”

The review – carried out under Section 116 of the 2005 Gambling Act – “follows concerns that activities may have been carried out contrary to the Act, not in accordance with conditions of their licence and that the Licensee may be unsuitable to carry on the licensed activities”.

While the Gambling Commission could not yet provide full details of these concerns, it said that “failing to protect consumers was a key consideration in the suspension decision”.

BGO Entertainment operates the BGO.com brand as well as Powerspins, Vegasluck and Chili.com.

Last year, the regulator imposed new restrictions on BGO – as well as two other operators – after identifying failings in its social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) controls. As a result of that ruling, BGO paid a £2m settlement.

The investigation discovering these failings was launched in September 2019, after failings were identified in a previous compliance assessment in September 2018. 

That 2019 investigation found that BGO had failed to apply effective policies and procedures for customers displaying signs of problem gambling between 25 September 2018 and 23 March 2020. This included players gambling six-figure sums without BGO taking action.

As a result of that investigation, BGO agreed to apply enhanced due diligence measures to its comprising the top 125 largest depositing customers, and top 125 customers by losses that were not already on the first list. 

The Gambling Commission did not state whether the current licence suspension was connected to the 2020 licence conditions.