Gambling Commission brings in new rules to tackle money laundering
New requirements for UK-facing operators follows series of high-profile AML failures
Great Britain’s Gambling Commission is introducing new requirements for operators this autumn in a bid to tackle money laundering within the industry.
As part of the new changes, operators now must conduct an assessment of the risks of money laundering in their business, and show that they have effective policies, procedures and measures to mitigate any threat.
Operators must also report any criminal investigations involving them or their premises where it appears their measures to keep crime out of gambling have failed, and should impose terms and conditions to prevent employees from taking advantage of suspicious or irregular betting patterns.
The new rules follow a Commission consultation that took place at the end of 2015 and high profile anti-money laundering (AML) failures within the industry.
In April, Gala Coral admitted to “serious shortcomings” in its AML controls which enabled a customer to use ?846,000 gained from criminal activity to fund his gambling.
Last year, Rank Group forfeited almost ?1m in profits after an investigation found it wasn’t taking suitable steps to protect against money laundering and fulfil its social responsibility obligations in two separate cases.
“Britain’s gambling industry needs to focus on keeping crime out of gambling and these new requirements will help them do just that,” Nick Tofiluk, Gambling Commission director of regulation, said.
“We are urging all operators who supply products to consumers in Britain to read our document on the changes thoroughly and ensure their businesses are ready for when they come into force in the autumn.
“Along with ensuring their products are fair and open and children and vulnerable people are protected, preventing crime associated with gambling should be extremely high on every operator’s agenda.
“These new requirements encourage licensees to take a proactive and tailored approach to meeting their obligations to achieve meaningful results rather than focusing on processes alone,” he added.
The Commission added it would be considering whether to require licensees to provide information about crimes not covered by the latest changes, such as police call-outs to premises.