Evolution To Pay £4.75m Settlement After Games Reached Unlicensed UK Sites
Live casino supplier Evolution will pay a £4.75 million settlement after the UK Gambling Commission found its games were offered on six unlicensed websites that reached players in Great Britain. The regulator said the failings were serious enough for it to consider suspending Evolution's licence before the company agreed to resolve the case.
What The Gambling Commission Found
The Commission published a public statement on July 23, 2026 setting out how a software and game host licence holder supplied online games to unlicensed gambling businesses. Between December 2023 and November 2024 there were large volumes of visits to the six sites by UK consumers, according to the regulator.
The investigation began as a licence review under section 116 of the Gambling Act 2005, opened after the Commission found five of Evolution's genuine games on six websites run by two operators. The regulator notified Evolution in December 2024, the company confirmed the games were genuine, and it then geo-blocked them for British consumers on the unlicensed sites.
The Licence Conditions Evolution Breached
The Commission concluded that Evolution breached licence conditions 12.1.1 and 12.1.2, which require operators to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing and, for foreign-based licence holders, to comply with the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017. It found Evolution's risk assessment was not appropriate between April 2024 and January 2025 and did not meet minimum requirements, particularly on third-party risk. That left the supplier without adequate controls to spot when its games reached British players through online casinos that held no Commission licence.
John Pierce, the Commission's Director of Enforcement, said: "This case exposed serious weaknesses in Evolution's money laundering risk assessment and its oversight of risks within its supply chain." He said the company's assessment was "outdated" and that testing "uncovered failings that were serious enough for us to consider licence suspension".
What Evolution Must Do Under The Settlement
Pierce added that Evolution "responded swiftly and comprehensively once these issues were identified", as set out in the Commission's public statement.
Under the settlement Evolution will pay a £4.75m penalty and accept a new licence condition requiring an independent audit of its relevant policies, procedures and controls within 12 months of the review's conclusion. The company also agreed to the publication of a statement of facts and a payment towards the Commission's costs of investigating the case.
What The Case Means For The Live Casino Market
Evolution holds both gambling software and game host, or casino, licences from the Commission and is one of the largest suppliers of live dealer casinos to the British market. The case turned on business-to-business oversight rather than a consumer-facing operator, and it signals that the regulator expects suppliers to know exactly who is distributing their games and where those games are played.
Pierce said the Commission "will continue to proactively monitor and test the market to identify licensed products being made available through illegal operators targeting consumers in Great Britain" and warned that "where we find failings, we will take decisive regulatory action". Other business-to-business suppliers should expect the same scrutiny of their third-party controls in the months ahead.
