The UK Gambling Commission has issued a warning to Itai Loewenstein, the chief executive of ProgressPlay Limited, after reviewing his Personal Management Licence and finding that he had breached the general conditions attached to personal licences under the Gambling Act 2005.
The Oct. 29 action was taken under section 117(1)(a) of the act. Loewenstein held the licence while responsible for ProgressPlay’s overall management and direction. The Commission recorded the sanction on its public register.
The review found that he had not taken all reasonable steps to ensure the operator complied with obligations intended to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as safer-gambling requirements. Those anti-money-laundering duties included requirements under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017 for operators based outside the UK.
The safer-gambling findings concerned Social Responsibility Code Provision 3.4.3. That provision requires licensees to monitor customers from the opening of an account, tailor interventions to the number and seriousness of harm indicators, and assess whether individual interactions change a customer’s behaviour or continuing risk of harm.
The Commission said Loewenstein was open and transparent during its engagement, accepted shortcomings in his oversight and showed understanding of the issues behind the review. The outcome was a warning rather than a suspension or revocation of his personal licence, and the published decision did not impose an additional financial penalty on him.
The personal sanction follows earlier enforcement against ProgressPlay Limited itself, although the Commission’s register records the actions separately. In August 2025, the operator, which runs 134 websites, was ordered to pay a £1 million fine after a compliance assessment found anti-money-laundering and social-responsibility failings. It also received a warning and was required to undergo an independent audit of its relevant policies, procedures and controls.
That was ProgressPlay’s second enforcement action by the regulator. The company paid £175,718 in 2022 for earlier social-responsibility and anti-money-laundering failures, while the breaches considered in the 2025 action occurred between August 2021 and August 2024. The Commission has said repeated regulatory breaches will bring increasingly severe enforcement action.
