ISLAMABAD: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has warned of emerging risks to economies from rising online gaming and gambling operations, while sharing new risk indicators with countries to combat money laundering and terror financing.
“As gaming and gambling services become increasingly digital, cross-border and interconnected, new money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risks are emerging,” said the FATF, the Paris-based global watchdog on money laundering, terror financing and proliferation financing related to weapons of mass destruction, on Wednesday after conducting surveys across 80 jurisdictions.
The findings and risk indicators examine risks across casinos, gambling and online gaming, including online platforms, payment channels, illegal operators and their links to the broader financial system. The FATF said it also sets international standards to combat illicit finance and assesses whether countries are taking effective action.
The latest report said the gaming and gambling industries had changed significantly in recent years and continued to evolve through the expansion of online, cross-border, multi-product and multi-payment platforms.
“Gaming and gambling establishments and platforms are now part of a broader interconnected value transfer ecosystem with numerous actors, some of which fall outside national anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulatory frameworks,” it said.
