Britain’s BGC completes first Gambling Anti-Money Laundering Group training day
The industry group held the training day as it seeks to share AML best practice and increase operator standards.
UK.- The major UK industry lobby group, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has completed the first Training Day for its Gambling Anti-Money Laundering Group (GAMLG). The day-long session featured discussion on emerging risks and developments and best practice on AML measures.
Claire Wilson, a senior manager at Britain’s Gambling Commission, and Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Crime Agency (NCA) discussed current threats to the gambling sector, regulatory issues and lessons that could be learned from past enforcement cases.
There were also presentations on SAR best practice from the UK’s Financial Intelligence Unit and a tutorial on “building a culture of compliance” from KPMG.
Some 80 delegates from 30 British-licensed betting and gaming companies attended. Those attaining included Betway, Entain, Gamesys, Genting, Playtech and William Hill.
The BGC said: “The objective of the Group is to reduce money laundering risks within the sector and to promulgate best practice amongst operators. While gambling is rated as low risk in the Government’s National Risk Assessment, the industry is determined to drive up standards and encourage best practice across its membership to keep crime out of gambling.”
It added: “BGC members will continue to work through GAMLG to raise standards across the sector in keeping crime out of gambling.”
The GAMLG was founded by the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) and Remote Gambling Association (RGA) in 2016. It’s chaired by Keith Bristow QPM, who was the first director-general of the National Crime Agency.
The BGC is focusing more strongly on AML issues after high-profile enforcement cases against operators for AML failings. In recent months, 888 Holdings, BetVictor and Genesis Global have all been sanctioned due to breaches of regulations.
Gambling Commission announces new rules on intervention with at-risk players
The Gambling Commission last month revealed new rules requiring licensed online gambling operators to identify and intervene with at-risk players as a measure to reduce gambling harm. Operators will have to monitor a “specific range of indicators as a required minimum to identify gambling harms”.
The full guidelines are to be published in June ahead of implementation on September 12. The regulator said the new measures had been drawn up due to “continued failings by licensed operators”. It believes that operators have the ability to identify at-risk customers but are still taking too long to intervene.
See also: UK betting operators hand MPs’ Grand National winnings to charity in BGC initiative
