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Evoke executives pledge fixes after Nevada board rebukes delays in compliance audit
Summary
Evoke (formerly 888/William Hill) told the Nevada Gaming Control Board it has reorganized compliance, strengthened AML and launched AI oversight after agents found slow responses and documentation gaps. Board members praised recent cooperation but warned they will keep the company under close scrutiny.
Evoke’s global compliance team appeared before the Nevada Gaming Control Board on Oct. 8 to answer questions about a long, ongoing audit and earlier delays in providing documents to Nevada agents. Harinder Gill, Evoke’s chief risk and intelligent automation officer, and Laura Bird, U.S. director of compliance, described structural changes, larger compliance committees and new three‑lines‑of‑defence processes they say are improving responses to regulators.
Board members repeatedly criticized the company for the pace and tone of earlier interactions with agents. Chair Dreiser and Judge Assad said agents felt ignored during parts of the investigation. Gill acknowledged “communication and prioritization” problems between Evoke’s local teams and a corporate center, and he promised faster, clearer engagement going forward. Laura Bird said company staff have supplied documents, hosted agent interviews and worked on remediation since August and expected the internal audit to be completed by year‑end.
Evoke’s presenters also described technical safeguards and anti‑money‑laundering controls including sanctions and PEP screening, KYC procedures and suspicious‑activity reporting; the company said it is piloting AI tools to help with transaction screening and software development tasks but emphasized the need for human oversight.
Several board members said the company’s improvements were real but warned that earlier slowness had cost time and taxpayer resources. Member Sandahl urged Evoke to improve leaders’ “emotional intelligence” when interacting with Nevada investigators. The board accepted the company’s cooperation and recommended approval of the pending licensure matter on the condition that Evoke continue to work closely with agents; the board left open potential follow‑up depending on the completed audit.
The company told the board it now operates local compliance teams in the U.S., U.K. and international hubs, maintains a group assurance function and has created an AI committee to manage emerging technology risks. Evoke’s U.S. compliance director said the company expects the audit to be finished this year and remains committed to “complete cooperation, transparency and timely engagement” with Nevada regulators.
The board’s action on Oct. 8 was procedural: it recommended approvals tied to the company’s existing applications while flagging the need for continuing oversight and demanding quicker responses to agent requests in future.
