FATF publishes new gaming and gambling risk indicators, flagging casinos and betting as highest-exposure sectors

The Financial Action Task Force has published a new set of red-flag indicators for gaming and gambling, with land-based and online casinos plus sports betting identified as carrying the highest money laundering exposure. For PSPs, acquirers and banks, the useful bit is not the headline risk label but the payment methods and operator behaviours FATF says are most often used to move funds under the radar.

1. FATF released Risks of Gaming and Gambling on Wednesday, updating its 2009 analysis of the casino sector. The report draws on questionnaire responses from 80 jurisdictions, written comments from a further 29, and industry consultation, so this is not a quick policy note drafted in a vacuum.
2. The report singles out land-based and online casinos and sports betting as the highest money laundering exposure across the sector. By contrast, lotteries and scratchcards are assessed as lower risk. FATF also says online gaming shows more documented terrorist financing activity than gambling, while proliferation financing risks remain limited across both sectors.
3. On the payments side, FATF says cash, e-wallets, mobile money and virtual assets are the methods most vulnerable to abuse, especially when operators use them to structure deposits below reporting thresholds. That is the part compliance teams will actually map into controls: threshold monitoring, transaction pattern detection and source-of-funds checks around small, repeated deposits.
4. FATF president Giles Thomson said unregulated sectors risk becoming “attractive gateways for fraudsters, professional money launderers and organised criminal networks”. He called on governments to strengthen oversight, crack down on illegal and offshore operators and deepen public-private cooperation.
5. The Danish Gambling Authority, Spillemyndigheden, said on Friday that the report stems from a broader review by FATF member countries over the past year and that it contributed to the work through FATF’s gaming sector working group. The regulator said many of the indicators are relevant for operators licensed in Denmark.

For Denmark specifically, the report lands in a market that has already been active on enforcement. Last year, Spillemyndigheden obtained a court order blocking 178 unlicensed gambling sites, its largest such action to date, and FATF notes that disguising operator presence through multiple site variations is one of the red-flag patterns to watch.