Online gaming and betting: EGBA welcomes extension of revised anti-money laundering directive to all gambling services

05 February 2013
by EGBA -- last modified 05 February 2013

EU online gambling operators salute the European Commission’s updated rules (see link) on anti-money laundering. The new rules, which we hope will bring a greater level of consistency between national rules, confirm that online gambling is a clear cross-border economic activity covered by a growing number of EU-harmonised legislation.

The European Commission's new AML proposal seeks to protect the financial sector but also other sectors such as gambling from being misused for money laundering purposes. The new rules update the 2005 directive, which only included in its scope casino activities. The new rules cover for the first time all types of gambling activities, in particular online gambling, and will be subject to a risk-based approach (RBA).

The EU-licensed online gambling industry has already been applying standard AML provisions as part of their national licensing regime(s) for a number of years despite the fact that the risks associated with money laundering in regulated online gambling are very limited.

Sigrid Ligné, Secretary General of the EGBA, said: "Today's changes will improve the legal certainty of the sector by being incorporated into another piece of EU-harmonised legislation. They will also improve market access for regulated operators as some Member States today still use the fight against money laundering as a justification to prohibit online gambling services."

With the proposed changes, the EGBA hopes that Member States will implement the provisions of the directive in a consistent way by allowing online operators to continue to evaluate money laundering risks on a risk-based approach. The traceability and transparency of internet transactions mean that Member States should leave it to operators to decide, based on the risk factor, when to apply simple or enhanced due diligence. This is the best way to identify potential fraudsters and ensure consumers remain with regulated operators.

EGBA hopes as well that the new rules on anti-money laundering practices for online gambling will lead to harmonizing certain aspects of how customers should be identified. Multi–licensed online gambling operators have to comply with an increasing number of fragmented and inconsistent national regulations. This is particularly true in relation to know your customer (KYC) requirements which, in most countries, are not adapted to the online environment.

The EGBA is an association of leading European gaming and betting operators Bet-at-home.com, BetClic, bwinparty, Digibet, Expekt, and Unibet. EGBA is a Brussels-based non-profit association. It promotes the right of private gaming and betting operators that are regulated and licensed in one Member State to a fair market access throughout the European Union. Online gaming and betting is a fast growing market, but will remain for the next decades a limited part of the overall European gaming market in which the traditional land based offer is expected to grow from € 71.9 Billion GGR in 2010 to € 79 Billion GGR in 2015, thus keeping the lion's share with 85% of the market. Source: H2 Gambling Capital, September 2011.

European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA)