The UK’s Gambling Commission has ordered L&L Europe to pay £900,000 for regulatory breaches which included breaching the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
L&L Europe, which operates seven websites including allbritishcasino.com, casinocasino.com and hypercasino.com, employed a term and condition which meant customers could only make one withdrawal at a time.
This resulted in delays to customer withdrawals, with the breaches occurring between October 2024-October 2025.
Commission officials witnessed customer withdrawal requests being withheld for reasons unrelated to legal or regulatory requirements.
This breached Licence Condition 7.1.1 (1), which stated: “Licensees must ensure that the terms on which gambling is offered, and any consumer notices relating to gambling activity, are not unfair within the meaning of the Consumer Rights Act. Licensees must comply with those terms.”
The business also manually reviewed every fifth or 10th withdrawal for certain customers under a “Fraud & Collusion Policy”, again resulting in delayed payouts.
L&L Europe has accepted the settlement and the Commission said that the company has cooperated with it throughout the review. An action plan has been put in place and the firm has provided updates to the Commission.
However, Sue Young, Executive Director of Operations at the Gambling Commission, warned that the settlement sends “a clear message” that the regulator “will not fail to act” in instances of unfair gambling.
The Commission has been handing out various settlements to firms for anti-money laundering (AML) breaches in recent months, though this L&L Europe settlement is a rare case of a breach of the Consumer Rights Act.
Incidentally, the regulator identified concerns with L&L Europe’s AML policies, procedures and controls during the review, which has resulted in the business creating a new Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (MLTF) risk assessment tailored to Great Britain.
“As a regulator we expect consumers to be treated fairly,” Young said.
“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. That is essential to consumer trust.
“There may be occasions where a gambling business can ask consumers for information at withdrawal to fulfil legal obligations, but this was not the case here.
“We hope this case sends a clear reminder to the industry that, although much of our enforcement action frequently relates to anti-money laundering and social responsibility failings, we will not hesitate to act when we see incidents of gambling not being fair and open.”
Young L&L Europe punters lose £10,500 in quick fashion
L&L Europe’s cooperativeness and remedial action plan may have gone some way in helping the business to avoid a licence suspension, as the Commission pointed out that “the failings were serious and potentially impacted on the licensing objectives”.
These failings also extended to social responsibility, with an 18-year-old customer registering an account and losing £4,000 in eight minutes. Another case saw a 21 year-old lose £6,500 within three days of registering an account.
Though the business has made steps to address all of the failings listed above, it is not a good look for the regulated industry, which is lobbying intensely against potential further tax rises and stricter regulation.
Failings like this only add substance to the arguments of those opposed to the sector, and with such heavy scrutiny on this industry currently, observers will be taking note.
Chris Dalli, Chief Executive Officer at L&L Europe, told SBC: “We take complete ownership of the findings highlighted by the Gambling Commission. Our controls fell short of where they needed to be – plain and simple. We take our regulatory obligations seriously, and at the time, we didn’t wait for a formal outcome to act.
“We have overhauled our compliance processes, strengthened our player protection frameworks, and put real operational safeguards in place so these past mistakes aren’t repeated.
“Our dedicated customer base remains at the heart of our operations. They should expect nothing less than a completely safe, fair, and transparent environment, and we will continue demonstrating our genuine dedication to them through our day-to-day actions.”
