The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has published the first ever pan-European, self-regulatory guidelines to strengthen the anti-money laundering (AML) efforts of Europe’s online gambling operators and support the sector’s contribution to the fight against money laundering. The publication of the guidelines continues EGBA’s commitment to promote the highest level of industry responsibility.

The EGBA guidelines on fighting money laundering and terrorist financing contain best practice industry standards, which online gambling operators should apply across their entire EU and EEA operations. The guidelines apply a risk-based approach and include sector-specific guidance to support a high standard of compliance with EU, national and supranational AML rules. While the guidelines are intended to complement and strengthen existing AML rules, they have also been developed with consideration towards the EU’s upcoming AML package, which contains new rules on AML.

The guidelines include, amongst others, practical guidance on:

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• How to conduct customer and business risk assessments.
• Customer Due Diligence and improving cooperation during the process.
• Suspicious Transaction Reporting requirements.
• The relationship between AML and safer gambling.
• Record-keeping requirements.

To ensure the latest industry best practices are incorporated in the guidelines, EGBA invites interested stakeholders to submit feedback by 13 October 2022, following which EGBA will publish the finalised guidelines. To ensure the guidelines do what they intend, EGBA members will be required to submit yearly reports to EGBA summarising their progress in implementing the guidelines. The guidelines may be amended in the future to ensure they remain up to date with the latest industry best practices. Companies who are not members of EGBA are invited to join the initiative.

Dr Ekaterina Hartmann, Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at EGBA, said: “We’re pleased to present the first ever pan-European industry standards on anti-money laundering for Europe’s online gambling sector. Preventing online gambling from being used to hide the proceeds of crime is an important test for Europe’s gambling operators – but there’s currently very little sector-specific guidance to help operators in their compliance efforts. We hope these guidelines will fill this gap and lay strong foundations for the sector to achieve the highest possible standards in AML compliance. It’s important to gather expertise across the sector and we invite stakeholder feedback on the guidelines to ensure that, together, the sector can contribute positively and proactively to Europe’s fight against money laundering.”