The stock market valuation of the Rank Group fell by more than 6% after it was confirmed they will pay a £5 million fine to the Gambling Commission.
The Grosvenor Casino and Mecca Bingo owner was trading at £73.40 per share at market close on Tuesday evening, but as news of the regulatory settlement broke on Wednesday, their shares were available at just £68.80 come Thursday morning.
That was a drop-off of some 6.2%, and comes at a time when the Rank Group is facing a host of pressures – not least the rumoured Machine Games Duty (MGD) hike coming later this month.
Serious Licence Breaches
The Gambling Commission began investigating the Rank Group in 2025 after the firm self-reported their licence breaches.
And it was during the subsequent audit that the regulator uncovered even more troubling social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures, with one unnamed Grosvenor Casino venue coming under the microscope.
In one alarming incident detailed by the Gambling Commission, a customer enjoyed a win of £260,000 with Grosvenor Casino… and then gambled a staggering £250,000 of it in just 12 days. Nobody from the firm intervened at any point.
Another customer, who had previously self-excluded over concerns about their gambling, was allowed to return and lost £25,000 before any member of staff intervened.
Another individual was able to lose £50,000 before any alerts were triggered by the firm’s social responsibility tools.
In a contravention to Rank’s policies on safe play, customers who were ‘displaying concerning history, behaviours or inappropriate spend were permitted to play for extended periods or lose significant amounts before play was suspended,’ concluded the regulator.
Anti-Money Laundering Breaches
In addition to those social responsibility licence breaches, Rank were also found to have inadequate responses in place when dealing with anti-money laundering (AML) concerns.
The Gambling Commission declared that the company’s AML policies were not up to scratch when ‘mitigating the risk posed by money laundering and terrorist financing’, with a series of episodes in which customers were able to stake sizable sums without appropriate source of funds checks being carried out.
The regulator’s investigation also found that Rank hadn’t updated their procedures since the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations were updated in 2020.
One Grosvenor Casino customer was able to bet £85,000 in cash over the course of eleven weeks; sparking fears that the individual may have been ‘washing’ illegitimately-gained money.
Another was able to stake what was only described by the regulator as ‘significant funds’ without any proof of wealth or source of funds information being gathered by staff.
The Gambling Commission’s executive director of operations, Sue Young, warned licensed operators that social responsibility and AML failings are just as problematic in the land-based sector as they are online.
“We would advise all premises-based operators to take a careful look at this case and ensure their own business is not making the same mistakes, and therefore they do not face costly and inevitable Commission action,” Young commented.
The Rank Group is one of the most significant land-based gambling employers in the country, with nearly 100 Grosvenor Casino and Mecca Bingo properties. They had made a provision of £5 million in their annual accounts, confirming that they had made the ‘settlement offer’ to the regulator in lieu of a fine.
They have been sanctioned on at least three occasions previously, having twice been fined £500,000 previously before facing a £5.8 million penalty in 2021 for another catalogue of social responsibility and AML licence breaches.
Company directors have stated that remedial actions have now been put in place to improve Rank Group’s policies and procedures. As of this morning, their share price had started to rebound upwards – but it may only be a temporary stay of execution…
MGD Hike On the Horizon
All land-based gambling properties in the UK – from casinos and betting shops to bingo halls and adult gaming centres – pay Machine Games Duty (MGD) on any gambling machines that pay out cash prizes in their venues.
The machine type determines the level of tax paid on net takings, with lower stakes machines at 5% and higher stakes games at 25%.
However, there are concerns within the industry that those rates could increase significantly when the Chancellor, John Healey, announces his Autumn Budget at the end of October.
Some have suggested that MGD could be hiked to 40% to pay for the government’s new policies, which would have a catastrophic impact on the financial viability of gambling venues – including many of those owned by the Rank Group.
Richard Harris, the chief executive of the Rank Group, has warned that as many as one-in-three of their ‘much-loved bingo halls and casinos’ would be forced to close.