Gambling Regulator Enforcement Tracker: Major Fines and Sanctions 2020–2026

Regulators fined or sanctioned gambling companies heavily between 2020 and 2026, and the biggest cases share two causes: weak anti-money laundering (AML) controls and missed signs of gambling harm. The largest amounts in this tracker are AUSTRAC’s A$450m civil penalty against Crown (July 2023), Wynn Las Vegas’s US$130m forfeiture (September 2024) and the Gambling Commission’s record £19.2m settlement with William Hill (March 2023).

The table below lists 29 actions from 2020 to October 2026, each linked to the regulator’s own notice, a court or prosecutor’s release, or trade-press coverage of the decision. It is a selection of the cases that matter most for operators, suppliers and affiliates, not every sanction issued. Amounts are shown in the currency of the decision.

Which iGaming fines and sanctions were largest from 2020 to 2026?

As of October 2026, the three largest gambling enforcement outcomes in this tracker are AUSTRAC’s A$450 million penalty against Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth, ordered by the Federal Court on 11 July 2023, the US$130,131,645 forfeiture agreed by Wynn Las Vegas on 6 September 2024, and the Kansspelautoriteit’s €24,846,000 fine on Novatech Solutions announced in March 2026.

Two Australian AML cases are still open. AUSTRAC started civil penalty proceedings against The Star Pty Limited and The Star Entertainment QLD Limited on 30 November 2022 and against Entain Group Pty Ltd (Ladbrokes, Neds) on 16 December 2024; AUSTRAC lists both as current court proceedings, with no penalty ordered as of October 2026. Press reports from the June 2025 Star hearing put the penalty AUSTRAC sought at about A$400 million, which is a request, not an order.

What do gambling regulators fine companies for?

Across the 29 actions above, the most common grounds are anti-money laundering failures and social responsibility failures, usually in the same case. The Gambling Commission’s 2022 to 2026 settlements with Entain, William Hill, 888, Gamesys and Platinum Gaming all paired both, while the KSA’s largest 2026 fines targeted unlicensed offers to Dutch players.

Anti-money laundering and source of funds

AML cases tend to turn on a handful of recurring facts. Customers deposit large sums before source-of-funds checks start, enhanced due diligence arrives late, and risk assessments miss known red flags. 888’s policy, for example, let customers deposit £40,000 before source-of-funds checks; Entain accepted £742,000 from one online customer over 14 months without sufficient checks. Platinum Gaming’s £10m case in October 2025 added a different gap: customers whose accounts had been closed over money laundering concerns before 2023 could reopen accounts. Our AML and KYC compliance guide covers the controls these decisions describe.

Social responsibility and customer interaction

Harm cases describe what the operator failed to notice. A new Mr Green customer spent £23,000 within 20 minutes with no checks, and William Hill let 331 self-excluded customers keep gambling. In December 2025 the Commission criticised Paddy Power and Betfair for over-reliance on automation: one customer staked £86,000 over 16 days without a manual account review. The responsible gambling compliance page sets out the interaction and monitoring duties behind these findings.

Advertising and affiliates

Marketing breaches carry smaller amounts but name more parties. Betway paid £408,915 in 2022 because its logo sat on a West Ham United children’s page. Denmark’s Spillemyndigheden reported an affiliate site owner to the police, who issued two DKK 50,000 fines in 2023 for promoting unlicensed brands, including sites that self-excluded players could still use. Germany’s GGL went after a celebrity streamer in 2026. Affiliates should read the affiliate marketing compliance guide, because several regulators now treat the publisher as a separate target.

Unlicensed supply and B2B suppliers

Suppliers are no longer outside the enforcement net. Evolution Malta Holding paid £4.75m in July 2026 partly because its games reached Great Britain through six unlicensed websites, and the AGCO fined Relax Gaming and Arrise Solutions $40,000 each in May 2026 for the same pattern in Ontario. Technical rules count too: Stakelogic paid £122,835 because 16 slots ran below the 2.5-second minimum spin time in the Remote Technical Standards, a timing error traced to a manual stopwatch. See the B2B supply chain overview and the testing labs page for how certification and content distribution controls work.

How do the regulators set and collect penalties?

Each regulator in this tracker uses a different legal route. The Gambling Commission mostly agrees regulatory settlements, the KSA and Spelinspektionen impose administrative fines that courts can reduce, AUSTRAC asks the Federal Court of Australia for civil penalties, and US cases run through prosecutors or state commissions under settlement agreements.

Court review matters most in Sweden. Spelinspektionen set Spooniker’s bonus-rule fee at SEK 100 million in March 2020; the Administrative Court halved it and the Administrative Court of Appeal cut it to SEK 30 million in May 2024. ATG’s SEK 6 million AML fee from November 2022 ended at SEK 3 million after the appeal court ruled the breaches serious but not systematic. Licence context for the main jurisdictions sits in the licensing hub, with detail on the UK Gambling Commission licence and the MGA licence.

How did enforcement change from 2024 to 2026?

Three shifts stand out between 2024 and October 2026. Fines moved down the supply chain to B2B suppliers and affiliates, the Dutch KSA pushed fines on offshore operators into the millions of euros, and the Gambling Commission produced fewer eight-figure cases, with Platinum Gaming’s £10m the only one in 2025.

1. Supplier liability. Greentube Alderney paid £1m in January 2025, Spribe OÜ had its Commission licence suspended in October 2025, and Evolution and Stakelogic followed in 2026. In Ontario the AGCO fined Booming Games $70,000 in August 2026 over a prohibited auto-play feature.
2. Bigger offshore fines in the Netherlands. The KSA fined Starscream €4,228,000 in January 2026 and Novatech €24,846,000 two months later. The KSA chair said the Novatech fine would have exceeded €100 million without the 10% turnover cap.
3. A wider spread of mid-sized UK cases. The Commission’s enforcement news page lists 15 monetary outcomes in calendar 2025, totalling about £21.5 million by our count, against £17 million from Entain alone in 2022.
4. Blocking over fining for unlicensed sites. Germany’s GGL reports that 1,843 illegal websites were no longer reachable from Germany in 2025 and that 178 were cut off from payment routes. Australia’s ACMA had blocked 1,822 sites since November 2019 as of 24 September 2026.

Market-by-market context for these trends, including Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany, is in our European markets guide. Unfamiliar terms such as EDD or source of wealth are defined in the industry glossary.

What about match-fixing and illegal gambling cases?

Integrity and criminal cases sit alongside licence enforcement, and in Great Britain the Gambling Commission publishes both. Its enforcement news page for 2025 and 2026 includes an 11-year ban for darts player Andy Jenkins (April 2025), suspensions of four table tennis players for match-fixing (March 2025) and charges against 15 people over General Election betting (April 2025).

Illegal gambling enforcement in Britain is mostly about premises and small operators: the same page lists raids on unlicensed gambling dens, arrests for suspected cheating and, in December 2025, the sentencing of an illegal WhatsApp bookmaker. These cases rarely involve licensed online businesses, but they show where the Commission spends its criminal powers. Operators should treat integrity reporting duties as part of licence compliance rather than a separate topic.

How should compliance teams use this tracker?

The fastest use of these decisions is as a test script. Each published notice lists the facts that triggered action, so a compliance team can check whether its own systems would catch the same customer: a £23,000 spend in 20 minutes, £40,000 in deposits before checks, or a returning self-excluded player.

1. Pull two or three notices from the regulator that licenses you and list every failing they name.
2. Map each failing to a control, an owner and a monitoring threshold in your own business.
3. Re-run the scenario on test accounts and record whether alerts fire and who acts on them.
4. For suppliers, check where your games are live: two 2026 cases turned on content reaching unlicensed sites.
5. For affiliates, audit which brands you promote in each country; Denmark and Germany have pursued publishers directly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the largest fine the UK Gambling Commission has issued?

The largest is the £19.2 million regulatory settlement announced on 28 March 2023 with three William Hill group companies: £12.5m from WHG (International), £3.7m from Mr Green and £3m from William Hill Organization, for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.

Are Dutch KSA fines on offshore casinos capped?

Yes. The fine is limited to 10% of the company’s worldwide turnover. The KSA said its €24,846,000 fine on Novatech Solutions in March 2026 would have topped €100 million without that cap.

Can B2B game suppliers be fined, or only operators?

Suppliers can be fined. In 2026 the Gambling Commission settled with Evolution Malta Holding for £4.75m and Stakelogic for £122,835, and Ontario’s AGCO issued $40,000 penalties to Relax Gaming and Arrise Solutions after their games appeared on unregulated sites.

Has AUSTRAC finished its cases against Star and Entain?

Not as of October 2026. AUSTRAC lists its proceedings against The Star entities (filed 30 November 2022) and Entain Group (filed 16 December 2024) as current court proceedings. Crown (A$450m, July 2023) and SkyCity Adelaide (A$67m, June 2024) are concluded.

Do Swedish courts change Spelinspektionen fines?

Often. Spooniker’s SEK 100 million bonus-rule fee from 2020 was cut to SEK 30 million by the Administrative Court of Appeal in May 2024, and ATG’s SEK 6 million AML fee from 2022 was reduced to SEK 3 million in October 2025.

Can affiliates be fined for promoting unlicensed casinos?

Yes. In Denmark a website owner received two DKK 50,000 fines in 2023 after Spillemyndigheden reported the sites to the police, and Germany’s GGL set a 250,000 euro coercive payment on a streamer in 2026 to enforce a ban on illegal gambling advertising.