On Wednesday, L & L Europe Limited agreed to pay £900,000 ($1.2 million) to the UK Gambling Commission following a comprehensive regulatory review that revealed several significant failings.
Among the issues uncovered were unlawful delays in customer withdrawals, inadequate anti-money laundering (AML) protocols, and insufficient protections for vulnerable gamblers. The Gambling Commission started its compliance evaluation of L & L Europe’s remote operating license (No. 038758), which encompasses several gambling websites including allbritishcasino.com, casinocasino.com, and hypercasino.com, after concerns arose during an audit.
The breaches occurred between October 2024 and October 2025, according to the Commission.
One major concern was a clause in L & L Europe’s terms and conditions that stated only one withdrawal could be processed at a time. Customers had to wait for the authorization of a previous withdrawal before making a new request. The regulator deemed this clause “unfair within the meaning of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.”
Issues were also noted regarding a manual review process that was inconsistently applied; some customers had their withdrawals subjected to scrutiny on every fifth or tenth transaction. This led to additional, sometimes delayed, requests for information at the time of withdrawal, rather than earlier.
Sue Young, the Gambling Commission's executive director of operations, stated, "As a regulator, we expect consumers to be treated fairly. A basic expectation is that when you have winnings, you can withdraw those swiftly without hindrance from unfair terms and conditions or the operator failing to carry out checks at an earlier stage." She highlighted the importance of protecting consumer trust and addressing anti-money laundering violations.
The review also shed light on significant shortcomings in L & L Europe’s AML and counter-terrorist financing measures. The operator relied heavily on financial thresholds and sampling for risk assessments, leading to unclear risk scoring and a lack of clear differentiation between UK-based customers and others. Policies regarding disproportionate spending were inadequate, and the company failed to follow proper customer due diligence procedures, accepting a customer’s source of funds without sufficient evidence.
These deficiencies violated Licence Condition 12.1.1, which required proper risk assessments and the implementation and review of AML controls.
The Commission identified weaknesses in L & L Europe’s protections for at-risk customers as well. Alerts related to safer gambling were primarily linked to financial thresholds and were applied inconsistently across various sites. Multiple indicators were needed within a singular day to trigger necessary actions, resulting in sparse automated responses to significant warning signs of harm.
Concrete examples included a customer who had 84 failed deposits within a week without being flagged, a 21-year-old who lost £6,500 in three days without intervention, and an 18-year-old who lost £4,000 in eight minutes with inadequate protections in place.
Rather than impose a formal fine, L & L Europe opted to pay £900,000 to the consolidated fund and cover the investigation costs. The Gambling Commission acknowledged aggravating factors such as the seriousness and recurrence of the previously highlighted failings, but also noted mitigating factors including the operator’s cooperation and prompt remedial actions relative to the regulator’s findings.
The Gambling Commission has announced plans for a crackdown on AML failures in land-based operations, including a recent settlement of more than £5 million agreed upon by the Rank Group earlier this month.
