The new EGBA Guidelines aim 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 Guidelines 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 to the EU’s upcoming AML package, which contains new rules on AML.

The Guidelines include practical guidance on:

• how to conduct customer and business risk assessments;
• customer due diligence and improving cooperation;
• suspicious transaction reporting requirements;
• the relationship between AML and safer gambling; and
• record-keeping requirements.

To ensure the latest industry best practices are incorporated into the Guidelines, EGBA invites interested stakeholders to submit feedback by 13 October 2022, following which EGBA will publish the finalised document. 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. EGBA says that 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. To read EGBA’s press release in full and for a link to the Guidelines, click here.