AAMS signs anti-Mafia MoU
Agreement with National Anti-Mafia Directorate regulator's latest move to combat corruption in Italian gambling industry.
The Italian egaming regulator AAMS has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Italy’s National Anti-Mafia Directorate in a bid to stamp out the involvement of criminal organisations in the country’s gambling industry.
The five-year agreement will see the associations look to develop methods of sharing information in order to improve the efficiency of each body’s anti-corruption strategies, spot anomalies in betting patterns, and create synergies which will allow incidences of Mafia involvement to be quickly reported to regional prosecutors’ offices.
An official statement released by AAMS failed to highlight any specific areas of corruption, but admitted that high amounts spent by Italian players “ total amounts deposited reached over 79bn in 2011 “ had attracted the attention of organised crime in the country.
Italian legislation requires gambling companies’ directors to be investigated for any involvement in organised crime as part of the licensing process “ one of the only industries in the country to have such controls.
It is the regulator’s latest move to combat illegal gambling and corruption, after the creation of a blacklist of unlicensed operators was announced in September 2011. This was followed by the announcement that AAMS would look to work with financial institutions in order to prevent offshore sites from processing payments.
The signing of the agreement follows AAMS’ MoU with French regulator ARJEL, designed to formalise information sharing agreements and discuss common issues. Spain officially joined the agreement at the beginning of April ahead of the opening of the country’s egaming market, expected to take place by June, while eGaming Review exclusively revealed that the UK Gambling Commission has also entered talks to join the MoU in late March.