UKGC: Grosvenor Casinos operators to pay £5m over AML and safer-gambling failures

Three Rank Group-owned casino operators are to pay £5 million ($6.6m) after a UK Gambling Commission investigation found anti-money launderingAnti-money laundering (AML)The rules that oblige businesses to spot and report money that may come from crime. For gambling companies it means knowing who their customers are and where large sums come from.Full entry in the glossary× (AML) and social responsibility failures, the regulator said on 7 October 2026.

The operators are Grosvenor Casinos Limited, Grosvenor Casinos (GC) Limited and Gaming Group Limited. Together they run 51 casinos across Great Britain. They will also undergo a third-party audit to check that they are applying AML and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls effectively.

The whole £5 million will go to the Government's Consolidated Fund.

Key details

• Settlement: £5 million, paid to the Consolidated Fund.
• Other requirement: a third-party audit of AML and safer gambling controls.
• Operators: Grosvenor Casinos Limited, Grosvenor Casinos (GC) Limited and Gaming Group Limited, owned by Rank Group.
• AML failures: policies were not updated for the 2020 changes to the Money Laundering Regulations; controls allowed inconsistent decisions on customers with elevated risk; unclear rules led to inappropriate risk levels for high-risk customers and unscrutinised high-risk sources of funds; enhanced due diligenceEnhanced due diligenceExtra checks on a customer or transaction that carries a higher risk of money laundering, on top of the standard identity checks.Full entry in the glossary× checks were not carried out when the company's own policies required them.
• Social responsibility failures: no safer gambling interactions with a customer who lost £50,000; no record of interactions with a customer who won about £260,000 and then lost around £250,000 in 12 days; no interaction with a customer returning from self-exclusionSelf-exclusionA formal request by a person to be barred from gambling with a business, or with many businesses at once, for a set period.Full entry in the glossary× until they had lost £25,000.

Why it matters

The Commission's Executive Director of Operations, Sue Young, said larger enforcement cases are often associated with online gambling, but the risks are equally present on the land-based side. She advised all premises-based operators to review the case and check that their own businesses are not making the same mistakes.

The settlement of £5 million is paired with a third-party audit, so the operators face continued oversight of their controls as well as the payment.