Death of a player had several consequences for London Casino

After a British High Roller committed suicide shortly after his casino visit, the casino quickly ended up in the focus of investigations very quickly. The British Gambling Commission is accusing the Aspers Stratford City Casino of shortcomings in protecting the gambler as well as in preventing money laundering. However, can the casino be held responsible for such a tragic death of a guest?

In November 2018 the gambling guest was found dead. In a subsequent autopsy, the coroner came to the conclusion, that it was a suicide death. Upon further investigations, it was discovered, that the dead gambler had visited the London Aspers Stratford City Casino just a day before. One gets the impression therefore, that the man‘s suicide was related to his last casino visit. 

Gambler protection failed all along the line

In the present case, the responsible UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has examined the circumstances in detail. The result: In several similar cases the Aspers Stratford City Casino did not follow the strict gambler protection measures.

Thus the Casino-Management had not supervised the dead gambling guest enough and did not record his gambling behaviour as stipulated. Further to this, the Casino-Guest was treated as “VIP-Guest“, which makes one automatically assume, that the man can afford high losses. A credit assessment was also at no time carried out. Besides this, the casino-guest could, in several cases, exceed the prescribed single limit amounting to 5,000 per game without any problems.

Further to this, the responsible employees of the casino had not checked the origin of the funds. And this, although the man in two cases deposited cash amounts of 51,000 and 47,000 GBP respectively. The London Casino had also foregone the money laundering check which is prescribed by law. Only a few weeks ago, we reported about the Increase in the suicide rate of young gambling addicts.

Connection between Suicide and Casino-Visit is hardly proved

Basically all casino providers have the duty of protecting their gamblers from personal gambling problems. When a problematic gambling behaviour is discovered, those responsible must make use of the relevant countermeasures and under the circumstances, ban the gambler from gambling.

In the present case, the UKGC wanted to find out if the suicide of the man in November 2018 und his previous casino visits were related. Eventually one could not determine exactly, what were the exact circumstances of the suicide. It is a fact that the dead gambler was at the mentioned casino just a day before the terrible incident. And even in the time before that, the man had been a welcome “VIP-customer“. These circumstances show that those responsible at the casino knew about the problematic gambling behaviour of the gambler. The responsible CEO of the British Gambling Authorities issued the following statement about the case:

“As a regulating body, we have examined the behaviour of the casino in respect to the gambler and discovered shortcomings in the prevention of money laundering, as well as in the process of customer contact.“

Casino imposed with a fine of 652,500 GBP 

Because of several serious shortcomings in protecting the gambler, the UKGC imposed a fine of 682,500 GBP on the London Casino. This amounts to 780,000 Euro. Further to this, around 780,000 Euro were deducted from the casino intake. This is equivalent to the sum, which the dead gambler had lost in the casino due to bad player protection measures in the same casino. Besides, the Aspers Stratford City Casino was requested to resolve the determined shortcomings, so that in the future there will not be a repetition of this tragic incident. Only a short while ago, we reported of the Yearly Report of the UKGC and the imposed fines.

Conclusion

The British Aspers Stratford City Casino is being accused of serious infringements. These are not only limited to gambler protection measures which obviously were not implemented well enough, but they also concern prevention of money laundering. For this reason, the casino must now pay a fine amounting to 652,500 GBP and also rectify its shortcomings immediately. The sad destiny of the VIP-Gambler shows that a problematic gambling behaviour combined with other difficult life situations can soon be too much for the person affected. Therefore, prevention measures should be developed so that assistance is offered as early as possible

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