Evolution Malta Holding Limited
Details
A licence review under section 116 of the Act was commenced following concerns that 5 of Evolution’s genuine games had been found on 6 websites, operated by 2 operators (the “Websites”) who were unlicensed by the Gambling Commission, yet accessible at scale to consumers in Great Britain (GB).
The Commission has information which suggests between December 2023 and November 2024, there were large volumes of visits to the Websites by UK consumers. In August 2024 the Commission identified the presence of what appeared to be Evolution games on the Websites. The Commission notified Evolution in December 2024, who confirmed they were genuine Evolution Games. This led to Evolution immediately and permanently geo-blocking those games to GB consumers on the unlicensed Websites in addition to other websites where their games were found.
The review found failings in Evolution’s controls, specifically:
- paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of licence condition 12.1.1 requiring compliance with the prevention of Money Laundering (ML) and Terrorist Financing (TF)
- licence condition 12.1.2 requiring operators based in foreign jurisdictions to comply with the ML, TF and Transfer of Funds (Information of the Payer) Regulations 2017.
In line with our Statement of Principles for Licensing and regulation, Evolution will make a total payment in lieu of a financial penalty of £4,750,000. Details of this are set out under the heading Regulatory Settlement.
Further information about this case can be found on the Gambling Commission’s public statement, which can be found here: Evolution Malta Holding Limited Public Statement