The company Olympic Casino Group Baltija (OCGB) did not take sufficient steps to identify the origin of Šarūnas Stepukonis’ losing funds, and the monitoring of his financial transactions was only formal and ineffective. Such violations were identified by the Gaming Supervisory Authority, which conducted an inspection of OCGB’s activities in Lithuania. The company was fined almost 8.4 million euros.
The Gaming Supervisory Authority (LPT) investigated the actions taken by OCGB in response to Š. Stepukonis’ transactions on the company’s gaming website from December 2016 to the end of June 2021. The law obliges gaming operators to ensure that customer funds are not obtained from criminal activities or through participation in such activities. It is also mandatory to verify the origin of the funds. LPT found that the measures applied by OCGB were poor and insufficient, and the monitoring of Š. Stepukonis’ transactions was formal.
Gambling organizers must report suspicious transactions to the FNTT. Š. Stepukonis’ transactions had obvious signs that should have raised suspicions for the gambling organizer. However, the FNTT was not informed about this.
During the inspection, evidence was also collected that Š. Stepukonis’ gambling was irresponsible. The gambling company should have noticed this, especially since the client was assigned a personal manager who saw all of his transactions.
“Instead of finding out whether Š. Stepukonis had a gambling problem or informing the supervisory authority, Olympic Casino encouraged him to gamble even more. An individual incentive package was prepared for him. A total of 1.3 million euros was allocated for this. This “bonus” could only be spent on gambling. Other incentives were also allocated,” – comments on the results of the inspection by LPT Director Virginijus Daukšys.
Since mid-2021, gambling companies in Lithuania have no longer been allowed to offer incentives to their customers that they would later lose. Just before this tightening came into effect, Š. Stepukonis’ virtual gambling was moved from Lithuania to Estonia, where it was still allowed to encourage gamblers.
In this way, it was possible not only to maintain incentives for gambling, but also to avoid supervision by the LPT. If an ordinary gambler from Lithuania tried to go and register on the Estonian Olympic Casino website, he would be redirected to the Lithuanian website. However, in the case of Š. Stepukonis, the redirection was not carried out. These circumstances are part of the pre-trial investigation.
During the inspection, a total of five violations of the provisions of the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism and the Law on Gambling were identified.
The law allows for a fine of up to twice the amount of damage caused. The damage was determined to be 6.4 million euros – the amount Š. Stepukonis lost at the Olympic Casino in Lithuania. When calculating the fine, an aggravating circumstance was taken into account – the company did not cooperate during the inspection.
According to V. Daukšys, after this story came to light, steps were taken to prevent similar cases from recurring. The most important change is the law, proposed by the LPT, which obliges gambling companies to take action upon noticing irresponsible gambling and to provide information about it to the LPT.
“Until now, there was no such obligation. Therefore, the LPT did not have information that would allow it to take preventive actions in advance,” says V. Daukšys.
The new Gambling Law will come into force in November this year. Its aim is to reduce the accessibility, attractiveness and potential harm to personal health of gambling.
LPT also reviewed its procedures, adjusted internal procedures, allowing for more frequent scheduled inspections of the activities of gambling companies. In addition, the Ministry of Finance conducted an audit of LPT’s activities. No significant operational deficiencies were identified during the audit. LPT took into account the audit recommendations and allocated more human resources to money laundering prevention functions.
Source: Gambling Supervisory Authority under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania
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