European Commission Highlights Online Gambling’s Money Laundering Risks

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The European Commission (“Commission”) recently released its 2022 Supranational Risk Assessment Report (“SNRA Report”) to the European Parliament and Counsel regarding the “risk of money laundering and terrorist financing affecting the internal market and relating to cross-border activities.” The SNRA Report analyzes, on a broad scale, money laundering and terrorism financing risks and proposes a plan of action to address them. The Report also examines more specifically “sectors or products where relevant changes have been detected.” 

The SNRA Report flags the “Gambling Sector” as a “high risk” area of Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (“CFT”) concern, with a particular focus on online gambling. According to the Commission, online gambling presents a particularly high AML/CFT risk due to factors such as “the non-face-to face element, [and] huge and complex volumes of transactions and financial flows.” The potential use of e-money and virtual currencies, as well as the emergence of unlicensed online gambling sites, exacerbates this risk.

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