The island’s gambling regulator says it will exercise its powers ‘robustly’ if contraventions of anti-money laundering rules are identified.
It comes after on-line gaming firm CyberHorizon Ltd was fined £140,000 by the Gambling Supervision Commission.
The GSC said it was ‘reasonable and proportionate’ for CyberHorizon to pay the discretionary civil penalty.
But it discounted the £200,000 fine by 30% to £140,000 to reflect the fact that the company and its directors co-operated with the Commission and agreed settlement at an early stage.
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CyberHorizon, based at Sovereign House, Christian Road, Douglas, was licensed by the GSC between March 2021 and September 2023.
A supervisory inspection identified prima facie contraventions of the code on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.
This led to a regulatory inspection which identified a range of issues that were accepted by the company.
It found that CyberHoizon had not been fully regularly reviewing its customer risk assessment and had not fully met requirements in relation to a technology risk assessment being implemented prior to the company’s launch.
It had not followed rules about ending customer relationships where enhanced due diligence had not been provided and had not evidenced any process on how records will be retrieved following licence cessation.
The GSC said: ‘The Commission is satisfied that the imposition of the civil penalty on CyberHorizon reflects the serious nature of the non-compliance and issues identified.’
It noted that CyberHorizon had entered into settlement discussions with the Commission and having accepted certain shortcomings in relation to its mandatory compliance with the code, had sought to resolve matters ‘constructively and expeditiously’.
The GSC said all firms undertaking business in the regulated gambling sector have an obligation to conduct their affairs in a manner that adequately identifies and mitigates, among other things, the money laundering and terrorist financing risks faced by it.
It said: ‘The Commission, in regulating and supervising online gambling, will exercise its powers robustly if material risks to its regulatory objectives are identified in order to ensure that the Isle of Man retains its reputation as a responsible, and well-regulated jurisdiction.’