Gambling Commission Collects Nearly £10 Million In Settlements as Rank Group and Evolution Face Punishments

The Gambling Commission is set to collect almost £10 million in fines and regulatory settlements from two major players in the UK sector.

The Rank Group, whose brands include Grosvenor Casino and Mecca Bingo, confirmed in an earnings call on Monday that they are to offer a £5 million settlement figure to the regulator in lieu of a fine after breaching their licence conditions.

And live casino specialist Evolution, meanwhile, will be forced to pay £4.75 million after the Gambling Commission concluded an investigation into their alleged licence breaches.

Historical Compliance Failures

The Rank Group has been under investigation for a number of months.

The regulator suspects they have committed a series of ‘historical compliance failures’ in relation to how some customers have been handled at their Grosvenor Casino platform.

A catalogue of serious breaches would likely yield a significant fine as a penalty; especially as the Rank Group has already been hit with a considerable £500,000 sanction over regulatory breaches discovered back in 2018.

In a call to investors on Monday, Richard Harris – who confirmed that he has been appointed permanent company CEO after an interim spell – revealed that his company had issued the settlement offer to the Gambling Commission back in May.

The amount of £5 million was offered – covering a percentage of the gross gambling yield of Grosvenor Casino during the period of investigation – in a bid to conclude the case. Reports suggest that the regulator is ‘minded’ to accept the offer, as opposed to continuing with more formal action.

“The Commission has confirmed to the group that it is minded to accept the settlement proposal and we await receipt of the finalisation letter,” Rank’s earnings call confirmed.

Part of the reason for that stance, according to Gambling Commission insiders, is due to Rank instigating a series of remedial and improvement actions at Grosvenor Casino in the first half of 2026.

It has been a turbulent time for the Rank Group, who also confirmed that they made redundancies in the wake of the tax hike rolled out in April, which saw Remote Gaming Duty in the UK almost doubled from 21% to 40%.

However, the group is still expected to post record revenues for their financial year, which ran from July 2025 to the end of June.

Unlicensed Activity

The Gambling Commission, meanwhile, has separately been investigating Evolution since 2024.

The slots and live casino specialist has been probed over claims that a number of their games were made available to UK based players at six online casinos that did not have a legal operating licence.

That was a breach of Evolution’s terms of supply, with the Gambling Commission embarking on a wider review into the firm’s activity.

No further breaches have been identified, with the regulator confirming that Evolution has been fully cooperative with the investigation. As soon as it was known that their games were featuring on illegal sites, the company also took immediate remedial action.

The regulator has now concluded their 18-month long investigation, with Evolution to be fined £4.75 million.

Speaking about the case, Evolution’s CEO Martin Carlesund commented:

“At Evolution, we always want to do what is right. We do not want traffic from unlicensed operators and will always move quickly to address any such situation.

“We welcome the conclusion of the review and remain focused on continuing to supply our world-leading games to licensed operators in the UK.”

Evolution’s share price has climbed 4.5% over the past five days as news of the settlement emerged.