FATF flags new AML risk indicators for igaming, UK arcades face MGD pressure, and Cyprus targets gambling by GMI recipients

The week’s gambling-policy headlines were very much the sort that end up in payments committees, not just compliance inboxes. The FATF has added fresh AML (anti-money laundering) and terrorist-financing risk indicators for online gambling, while the UK and Cyprus both surfaced payment-flow questions that matter for merchants, PSPs, and acquiring banks.

1. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued an alert to international gambling regulators on the increased risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in the online and unlicensed gambling sector. Its new risk indicators include the use of multiple accounts and payment methods, suspicious betting patterns, and links to organised crime.
2. After a global review, illegal gambling was identified as a major threat, and the FATF urged governments to strengthen oversight. The practical point for PSPs is straightforward: gambling activity that looks normal at the transaction level can still trigger AML concern once account structuring, payment instrument switching, or unusual betting behaviour starts to show up in the data.
3. In the UK, a YouGov survey found that 77 per cent of adults believe arcade closures would negatively affect seaside towns, as Bacta warned that a proposed increase in Machine Games Duty (MGD) could push venues into closure. Joseph Cullis, Bacta president, said seaside arcades are part of the British holiday experience and that their year-round viability depends on gaming revenues.
4. The policy angle here is less about nostalgia than cashflow. If MGD rises enough to compress venue margins, the effect would not stop at the arcade floor: Bacta says it would spill into seaside tourism and neighbouring businesses, which is exactly the sort of downstream impact operators and their payment partners need to model before tax changes land.
5. Cyprus is also weighing a restriction on gambling by recipients of the Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI). Lawmakers and regulators are discussing ways to stop welfare payments from being used for gambling, and the Gaming and Casino Supervision Commission has noted increased gambling activity around GMI payment dates.

The Cyprus proposal includes cross-checking beneficiary records against casino membership databases. The catch, as noted in the source, is that implementation runs into limited access to banking information and privacy concerns — which is another way of saying the operational design is still the hard part.