William Hill let Brand-new Customer Bet ₤ 23,000 In 20 Minutes William Hill let new customer bet ₤ 23,000 in 20 minutes ByNick Edser Business press reporter Three gambling companies owned by William Hill are to pay penalties of ₤ 19.2 m for failing to protect consumers and weak anti-money laundering controls. The record penalty follows the Gambling Commission found brand-new clients had the ability to bet big sums over short durations without appropriate checks. In one case, a client was enabled to open a new account and invest ₤ 23,000 in 20 minutes with no checks. The commission "seriously considered" suspending William Hill's licence. It discovered several failures to guard versus possible cash laundering, with customers enabled to transfer big quantities without the organization performing suitable checks. A single person had the ability to invest and lose ₤ 70,134 in a month, while another transferred ₤ 73,535 and lost ₤ 14,068 in four months. "When we released this examination the failings we uncovered were so prevalent and alarming major factor to consider was provided to licence suspension," stated Andrew Rhodes, the Gambling Commission's president, said: "However, since the operator immediately identified their failings and dealt with us to quickly carry out improvements, we rather went with the largest enforcement payment in our history." Under the conditions of betting firms' licences, companies must perform checks to identify and contact clients who may be at risk of damage from betting. They need to also check that the cash being used to bet originates from a legitimate source and is not connected with, or being used to support, criminal activity.