Three gambling firms owned by William Hill have been hit with £19.2m in fines for failing to protect consumers and weak anti-money laundering controls.
The Gambling Commission said it had uncovered “widespread and alarming” issues at the company.
The problems were so severe the commission had “seriously considered” suspending the firm’s licence.
In one case, a customer was allowed to open a new account and spend £23,000 in 20 minutes without any checks.
As well as insufficient controls in place to protect new customers, the commission also found several failures to guard against possible money laundering.
It found cases where customers were allowed to deposit large amounts without the business conducting appropriate checks.
The commission said one customer was able to spend and lose £70,134 in a month, while another deposited £73,535 and lost £14,068 in four months.
