British gambling group Entain is to pay £17 million for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures in the Gambling Commission’s largest ever enforcement action.

Entain Group will pay £14 million for failures at its online business LC International Limited, which ran 13 websites, including ladbrokes.com, coral.co.uk and foxybingo.com.

It wILL also pay £3 million for failures at its Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming Limited operation, which runs 2,746 gambling premises across Britain.

The regulator said all £17 million would be directed towards socially responsible purposes as part of a regulatory settlement.

Additional licence conditions would ensure a business board member oversees an improvement plan.

“Our investigation revealed serious failures that have resulted in the largest enforcement outcome to date,” gambling commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes said.

“There are completely unacceptable anti-money laundering and safer gambling failures. Operators are reminded they must never place commercial considerations over compliance,” Mr Rhodes explained. “This is the second time this operator has fallen foul of rules in place to make gambling safer and crime-free.’’

The social responsibility failures included being slow or failing to minimise certain customers’ risk of harm associated with gambling.

The regulator said the operator conducted just one chat interaction with an online customer who spent extended periods gambling overnight during an 18-month period in which they deposited £230,845.

Anti-money laundering failures included allowing online customers to deposit large amounts without carrying out a sufficient source of funds checks.

A consumer is allowed to deposit £742,000 in 14 months without appropriate source-of-funds checks.

Another, known to live in social housing, was allowed to deposit £186,000 in six months without sufficient checks.

“Entain has entered into the regulatory settlement with the commission in order to bring the matter to a close and avoid further costly and protracted legal proceedings,” said the regulator. “Entain accepts that certain legacy systems and processes supporting the operations of its British business during 2019 and 2020 were not in line with the evolving regulatory expectations.”

However, the group also noted the commission’s statement that it found no evidence of criminal spending within Entain’s operations.