Online casino operator L&L Europe will pay £900,000 ($1.2 million) to settle a UK Gambling Commission investigation after regulators found the operator imposed unfair withdrawal delays and failed to properly protect vulnerable players.
The UKGC agreed a £900,000 ($1.2 million) settlement with operator L&L Europe. (Image: UKGC) The UKGC found that L&L Europe, which operates seven brands in the UK, unnecessarily delayed customer withdrawals through unfair terms and conditions and additional verification checks.
This included limiting customers to only one withdrawal request at a time, preventing players from submitting another request until the operator authorized the previous one.
The Commission ruled that the restriction was unfair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.L&L Europe also manually reviewed every fifth or tenth withdrawal for certain customers, with checks asking for additional documents that could have been requested at an earlier stage.
The company acknowledged that the process delayed withdrawals and confirmed it has since amended its procedures.
Sue Young, the UKGC’s executive director of operations, said customers should not face unnecessary obstacles when trying to access their funds.“As a regulator, we expect consumers to be treated fairly. A basic expectation is that when you have winnings, you can withdraw those swiftly without hindrance from unfair terms and conditions or the operator failing to carry out checks at an earlier stage. That is essential to consumer trust,” she said.
“There may be occasions where a gambling business can ask consumers for information at withdrawal to fulfill legal obligations, but this was not the case here”.
Young Customers Lost Thousands as Safeguards Failed
The investigation also uncovered failures in L&L Europe’s anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls between October 2024 and October 2025.
The UKGC found that the operator relied too heavily on generic financial thresholds rather than the individual risk profile of each user.
Its safer gambling monitoring systems also failed to identify potentially harmful behavior across all seven of its websites.
In one case, a customer recorded 84 failed deposits within seven days due to insufficient funds, yet the system failed to flag the potential gambling harm.
In two other cases, a 21-year-old and an 18-year-old quickly lost thousands of pounds without being flagged as high-risk customers.
The UKGC also found that some customers did not receive timely interventions despite reaching financial thresholds intended to trigger contact. One customer reached a threshold on their first day but did not receive a call until two weeks later.
AML Deficiencies & Settlement Terms
In addition to withdrawal barriers, the UKGC identified severe shortcomings in L&L Europe’s anti-money laundering procedures.
In one instance, a customer deposited £4,400 ($5,900) within eight hours of opening an account. The operator accepted funds from a newly opened bank account without adequately verifying their origin. The customer subsequently provided an incorrect address twice without raising internal suspicion.
L&L Europe accepted the regulatory findings and agreed to make a £900,000 ($1.2 million) payment in lieu of a financial penalty, alongside contributing toward the UKGC’s investigation costs.
L&L Europe CEO Chris Dalli took complete ownership of the findings, acknowledging that internal controls “fell short of where they needed to be”.
The reduced payment reflects the fact that L&L Europe cooperated with the investigation, accepted its failings early, and introduced corrective measures.
Regulator Warns Industry Over Withdrawal Practices
However, Young warned that the UKGC would continue to scrutinize unfair withdrawal practices.
“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,” she said.
The action follows a heavier, £4.75 million (US$6.42 million) settlement agreed between the UKGC and supplier Evolution in July, after a review found Evolution’s games were accessible to British gamblers through unlicensed websites.
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