The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has revealed that it considered suspending Evolution’s operating licence after an investigation found that the company’s games were available on six unlicensed websites accessible to customers in Great Britain.
Earlier, Evolution announced that it had reached a settlement with the UK regulator, agreeing to pay £4.75 million ($6.5 million). The settlement followed an investigation which found that the company’s content had been distributed through six unlicensed platforms. Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund described the situation as unacceptable and said the company had acted immediately to address the identified shortcomings.
The GC has since published its own statement, providing additional details of the investigation. According to the regulator, Evolution’s anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) procedures failed to identify in a timely manner that two operators were offering the company’s games to British customers without a GC licence.
The Commission also reported that between December 2023 and November 2024, users from Great Britain repeatedly accessed all six unlicensed websites where Evolution’s games were available.
Commenting on the case, John Pierce, Director of Enforcement at the UK Gambling Commission: “This case exposed serious weaknesses in Evolution’s anti-money laundering risk assessment and its oversight of risks within its supply chain.
“The company’s AML risk assessment was outdated and failed to adequately consider the risk of its games being made available through unlicensed operators. As a result, there was a significant gap between the controls on paper and their effectiveness in practice.”
The Commission also stated that Evolution breached regulatory requirements by:
- failing to take appropriate steps to identify and assess risks related to money laundering and terrorist financing;
- failing to establish and maintain effective policies, procedures and controls to ensure that its games were not made available to the British market through unlicensed operators; and
- failing to meet customer due diligence requirements.
According to the GC, the findings of the investigation and subsequent compliance checks uncovered breaches of such seriousness that the regulator considered suspending Evolution’s licence. However, the company promptly addressed the identified deficiencies and strengthened its internal control framework.
Follow-up testing found no further breaches. Nevertheless, the Commission stressed that the case should serve as an important warning to the wider gambling industry.
As John Pierce noted: “The investigation and the Commission’s compliance assessment identified breaches that were sufficiently serious for us to consider suspending Evolution’s operating licence.”
Pierce also added: “Operators must ensure that their risk assessments remain up to date, are reviewed regularly and reflect real-world risks.
They must understand who they supply their games to, how those games are distributed and where they are ultimately made available to consumers. They must also maintain effective ongoing monitoring to ensure that their products are not being used to support illegal gambling.
Operators should be under no illusion. We will continue to monitor the market proactively and carry out compliance work to identify cases where licensed products become available through illegal operators targeting consumers in Great Britain. Where such breaches are identified, we will take robust regulatory action.”
Evolution previously stated that it fully cooperated with the UK Gambling Commission throughout the investigation. The company also said it continues to strengthen its technical controls and internal procedures, including enhanced access restriction mechanisms. In addition, Evolution remains committed to investing in regulatory compliance and expanding cooperation with supervisory authorities.
Martin Carlesund, CEO of Evolution, said: “At Evolution, we always want to do what is right, and it is not acceptable that six unlicensed sites offered Evolution content in the regulated UK market.
“We do not want traffic from unlicensed operators and will always move quickly to address any such situation. We welcome the conclusion of the review and remain focused on continuing to supply our world-leading games to licensed operators in the UK.”
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