Following a two year process, the European Parliament has approved a new anti money laundering (AML) directive, which aims to strengthen EU member states framework on tax evasion and terrorist financing. The AML directive will increase monitoring of digital transactions, making it accessible it easier for authorities to trace funds. Financial services institutions and online gambling operators will be made to follow specific reporting obligations with regards to suspicious transactions made by their customers. The directive has been welcomed by Maarten Haijer, Secretary General of the European Betting and Gaming Association (EGBA), who stated that the association was pleased of the…

NBC – Securities regulators are investigating Charles Schwab and Merrill Lynch over whether they are doing enough to police their clients’ identities, sources said, a sign a crackdown on money-laundering is expanding, two sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Specifically, the regulators are looking into whether the brokerages missed red flags that could indicate attempts to move money illicitly or to feed proceeds from illegal activities into the financial system, the sources said. The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing Charles Schwab and Merrill Lynch for violations of anti-money laundering rules that require the brokerages to know their customers, the sources…

iGaming Business – A joint report by University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne and the International Centre for Sports Security (ICSS) has revealed that illegal sports betting is responsible for laundering $140 billion (€102.4 billion) of money, accounting for 80% of all betting on sport. The report, entitled ‘Protecting the Integrity of Sports Competition – The Last Bet for Modern Sport’, presents the findings of a two-year research project. The study discovered all sports around the world are vulnerable to match-fixing, which is driven by illegal betting. Although football and cricket were highlighted as the most vulnerable sports, the report also…

Reuters – Criminals are using betting on sports events to launder $140 billion each year, a report said on Thursday, exposing a lack of effective regulation that allows match-fixing to spread. Soccer and cricket were identified as the sports most threatened by criminals seeking to rig the gambling market but tennis, basketball, motor racing and badminton were also affected, according to the report, which is based on a two-year research. “The rapid evolution of the global sports betting market has seen an increased risk of infiltration by organised crime and money laundering,” said Chris Eaton of the Qatar-based International Centre…

Online Poker Report – One of the points Sheldon Adelson and his cohorts have been trying to drive home any chance they get is how online gambling sites can be used to launder money by everyone from drug cartels to terrorists. But is this really the case? And perhaps an even better question to ask is, does regulation increase or decrease the ability of shady characters to launder money online? It’s not that the reports Sheldon Adelson and the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling are citing are false. It’s the way in which Adelson and company are presenting these findings…

Net Security – A new report by McAfee sheds light on the underground world of online gambling. It identifies the proliferation of online casinos, an industry set to grow nearly 30% over the next three years, and how their use is fuelling cybercrime by making it easy to “cash in” on illegal activities. Online gambling involves huge volumes of transactions and cash flows that can obscure and disguise money laundering. Players are not dealing with a tangible, physical product; physical currency does not change hands. As a result, illegal proceeds can be laundered by wagering them on one end of…