Gambling Commission penalties: the largest fines against UK bookmakers
SBC News runs through the biggest financial penalties the Gambling Commission has imposed on UK operators, led by William Hill's £19.2m settlement.
The Gambling Commission has stepped up scrutiny of licensing and compliance failures across the UK betting sector in recent years, with financial penalties remaining its principal enforcement tool. SBC News has compiled the largest of these settlements, showing how repeated breaches of anti-money laundering and social responsibility rules have shaped the regulatory landscape.
The largest remains William Hill Group's combined £19.2m settlement in 2023, spread across three entities. WHG (International) Limited, which ran William Hill Online, accounted for £12.5m of that total, the biggest single portion. Online casino brand Mr Green was fined £3.7m, and William Hill Organisation Ltd a further £3m.
According to SBC News, the Commission found customers able to lose thousands of pounds within half an hour with no player protection or know-your-customer checks in place. Self-excluded Mr Green customers were still able to bet with William Hill, credit limits were raised before a mandatory 24-hour cooling-off period had elapsed, and one retail customer was only approached after staking £18,000.
Entain held the previous record, fined a combined £17m in 2022 over online and retail failings. Subsidiary LC International, which ran Entain's online operations, was fined £14m, while retail arm Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming received a £3m penalty. The Commission's investigation found Entain failed to properly check a customer who deposited £230,000 over eighteen months, approaching them only once, while retail staff were found negligent in at least one case involving a delivery driver who lost £17,000 in a year without escalation.
Platinum Gaming, operator of Unibet and Bingo.com, was fined £10m in October 2025, the third-largest penalty on record. Commission Director of Enforcement John Pierce described the case as involving "disappointing failures" in customer protection, after new players were found to have suffered significant losses within hours or days of opening accounts without any restrictions or harm-prevention measures applying. Pierce said the case revealed "serious shortcomings in customer interaction systems, including failures to identify and act on clear markers of harm."
evoke, then trading as 888 Holdings, was fined £9.4m in 2022 over anti-money laundering and social responsibility breaches. The Commission found the operator had allowed customers to deposit £40,000 before any source-of-funds check applied, which meant one customer deposited more than £65,000 over five months without providing proof-of-funds documentation.
Kindred Group, now owned by FDJ United alongside Platinum Gaming, was fined a combined £7.1m in 2023 across two subsidiaries. Platinum Gaming was fined £2.9m for failing to spot linked multiple accounts, allowing self-excluded customers access, and not engaging with players showing signs of problem gambling. 32Red was fined £4.2m after its proof-of-funds thresholds were set too high, letting flagged customers keep playing. Then-Executive Director Kay Roberts said the failures showed both operators "failed to interact with customers in a way which minimises the risk of them experiencing harms associated with gambling."
In Touch Games ranks sixth with a single penalty of £6.1m, though the operator has also faced earlier fines of £2.2m in 2019 and £3.4m in 2021 for separate breaches, according to SBC News.