Evolution Malta Holding Limited will (the company behind iconic live dealer games like Crazy Time and Monopoly Live, and the owner of NetEnt and Big Time Gaming) has agreed to pay a £4.75 million regulatory settlement after a UK Gambling Commission investigation found that its casino games appeared on six unlicensed websites accessible to consumers in Great Britain.
The UKGC said that two businesses supplied by Evolution were making its games available through the unlicensed sites between December 2023 and November 2024.
According to the Gambling Commission, Evolution’s money-laundering and terrorist-financing risk assessment was not effective enough to identify the danger posed by the two operators, and the Commission also found failures in risk identification, policies and controls intended to stop games reaching the unlicensed British market.
The Commission said the issues were serious enough for licence suspension to be considered, and that would have had a massive impact on the iGaming market as a whole.
Evolution holds both a gambling-software licence and a casino game-host licence in Great Britain, so this is, if you like, somewhat of a “test case” for the legal obligations of other operators.
After Evolution took corrective action after the problems were identified, the UK’s regulator said the company strengthened its controls and that subsequent testing did not uncover further instances of concern. The settlement, therefore, is a much preferred decision compared to license removal, for Evolution.
For New Zealand, the timing of Evolution’s settlement could not be more relevant. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 came into force on the 1st of May, and up to 15 licenses are set to be awarded through a competitive process. Existing providers can continue operating under transitional arrangements, but from the 1st of December 2026, those that have not applied for a license must withdraw from the Kiwi market entirely.
The UK’s case is a warning that compliance doesn’t end with the casino brand seen by players. Prospective New Zealand licensees will also now need to effectively have oversight of game studios, aggregated white label partners, and other businesses in their supply chains too.
Studios themselves will need to understand exactly where their games will be distributed and act quickly when content appears on an unauthorised platform.
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