L & L Europe Limited, the Malta-based operator behind seven online casino brands including allbritishcasino.com, casinocasino.com and hypercasino.com, has agreed to pay £900,000 to settle a Gambling Commission investigation that found it held up customer withdrawals without good reason.
The settlement, published on 21 October 2026, follows a compliance assessment of the company’s remote operating licence and a subsequent review under section 116 of the Gambling Act 2005. The regulator found breaches of its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) between October 2024 and October 2025, spanning withdrawals, anti-money laundering (AML) controls, safer gambling and technical standards.
How withdrawals were held back
Two practices drew particular criticism. The operator’s terms allowed a customer only one pending withdrawal at a time, with no further request permitted until the first had been authorised. The Commission judged this unfair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, in breach of LC 7.1.1. Officials also saw withdrawal requests withheld for reasons that were neither regulatory nor legal. The Commission acknowledged the company moved quickly to fix this.
Separately, a fraud and collusion policy meant some customers had every fifth or tenth withdrawal manually reviewed, with requests for extra information before payment. That breached LC 17.1.1, which bars operators from making withdrawals conditional on information they could reasonably have asked for earlier. The company accepted the reviews delayed payments and says withdrawals are now held only where a regulatory or legal requirement applies.
AML and safer gambling gaps
On AML (LC 12.1.1), the Commission said the operator’s controls leaned on financial thresholds and sampling rather than customer risk profiles, and its risk assessment lacked a clear scoring rationale. In one case, a customer deposited £4,400 within eight hours of registering; the source of funds was accepted without weighing that the bank account was only two weeks old.
Under social responsibility code provision 3.4.3, safer gambling alerts covering time spent and failed deposits ran on some sites but not the full suite. One customer logged 84 failed deposits in seven days without harm being flagged. Two customers under 25 lost £6,500 in three days and £4,000 in eight minutes respectively, with age-related risk not identified. The company also had no process to evaluate its overall approach to customer interaction.
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The regulator also found a breach of LC 2.3.1 after customers were able to exceed financial limits, including one returning from self-exclusion who went £98 over an agreed £1,000 monthly net deposit limit, contrary to Remote Technical Standard 12.
What the settlement covers
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Payment in lieu of financial penalty | £900,000, directed to the consolidated fund |
| Commission costs | Payment towards investigation costs (amount not published) |
| Public statement | Agreement to publication of a statement of facts |
The Commission cited the seriousness of the failings and their similarity to earlier cases as aggravating factors. In mitigation, the operator put a remedial action plan in place promptly, co-operated fully and accepted the failings early.
Regulator’s message
“A basic expectation is that when you have winnings you can withdraw those swiftly without hinderance from unfair terms and conditions or the operator failing to carry out checks at an earlier stage. That is essential to consumer trust.”
— Sue Young, Executive Director of Operations, Gambling Commission
“We hope this case sends a clear reminder to the industry that, although much of our enforcement action frequently relates to anti-money laundering and social responsibility failings, we will not hesitate to act when we see incidents of gambling not being fair and open.”
— Sue Young, Executive Director of Operations, Gambling Commission
Sources: Gambling Commission announcement and L & L Europe Limited public statement.
