The Gambling Commission describes the dangers of terrorist financing and money laundering

 Operators are not "appropriately" examining client data, according to the Gambling Commission, which has identified important trends and new dangers in managing anti-money laundering (AML) in the betting business.
 The head of enforcement for the Gambling Commission, John Pierce, gave a speech at the Gambling Anti-Money Laundering Group Training Day on 12 February, outlining important findings about AML practices that the watchdog has discovered.  

 Customer profiles and monitoring practices should be reviewed by operators, according to the Commission.  The goal here is to make sure that the "full range of risk"—including things like product risk, geographical location, and customer transactions—is reflected in customer risk profiles.

 According to Pierce, many "customer triggers" are failing miserably when it comes to combating the dangers of money laundering and the funding of terrorists.

 Pierce draws attention to processes that miss instances of unusual expenditure because they do not "appropriately" take the customer's income and wealth into account.

 Concerning issues of money laundering and terrorist financing, the Commission holds the view that operators are "over-relying" on self-declarations and information found in open-source databases.

 Other blunders include approving large monetary transactions before conducting an AML evaluation of the client.

 Risk is also rising because operators aren't checking their own data and are instead depending only on financial triggers.

 Operators, according to Pierce, should think about "realistic and effective monetary and non-monetary thresholds" when deciding whether or not to ask consumers for further information.  Pierce elaborated on the need of initiating conversation with users early on in the customer relationship.

 During the review process, the Commission has noticed that operators are not adhering to their own protocols to gather information about the source of funds.

 "Where appropriate, we anticipate requests for information regarding the origin of funds to be made in accordance with a risk-based methodology; however, this should not be seen as a mere formality," Pierce stated.

 "Ensuring that staff receive adequate guidance on document review, red flag identification, source of funds verification, and decision recording is critical,"

 New internet dangers
 The director of enforcement for the Commission has also spoken about the growing crypto and AI as two of the emerging risks that the agency is addressing.

 Pierce made the observation that clients are increasingly resorting to AI to falsify documentation pertaining to their identity and the origin of their payments.

 An uptick in "ID farming" has been noticed by the watchdog. This is when criminals gather personal information in order to register bank accounts, which are then used to access gaming accounts.

 The betting industry has seen a rise in fraudulent activity, and the number of mule accounts—user accounts created with the purpose of laundering money—has also climbed.

 Cryptocurrencies are not a new threat, but Pierce said that the problems they cause are just getting worse.

 There will likely be an increase in the number of payment processors that accept cryptocurrency as its use grows.  Pierce emphasised the need of operators thoroughly comprehending the services offered by their payment suppliers.

 The Gambling Commission announced earlier this month that the gross yield from online gambling in the UK climbed 21% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2024, reaching £1.54 billion (€1.85 billion/$1.92 billion).  In addition, the total amount wagered and spun online increased by 8% year-on-year, reaching 25.9 billion.

 This is so even though there was a 3% drop in average monthly active player accounts during Q4.