FATF Publishes New AML Risk Indicators for Gaming and Gambling Sector

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on 9 September 2026 published new risk indicators for the gaming and gambling sectors, warning that the rapid growth of online, cross-border and multi-payment platforms is creating new opportunities for money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing.

The work follows a year-long FATF project drawing on contributions from more than 80 jurisdictions, industry bodies and researchers. It is the FATF’s first detailed examination of risks associated with online and illegal gambling, alongside traditional casinos and the broader gaming sector.

Illegal and online gambling emerge as key risk areas

FATF identifies illegal gambling as one of the sector’s most significant risks. In some jurisdictions, illegal markets may rival or exceed the size of legal gambling markets, while offshore operators can exploit differences between national regulatory frameworks and offer anonymity that attracts both consumers and criminal actors.

The indicators highlight several forms of suspicious behaviour. These include using gambling platforms to move funds without meaningful gambling activity, making multiple small transactions to avoid detection, unusually large or coordinated bets linked to possible competition manipulation, opening multiple accounts under different or false identities, and mismatches between customer information and payment-account details.

FATF also points to risks arising from suspicious identity documents, multiple payment methods, opaque beneficial ownership structures and links between operators or owners and organised crime, cyber-enabled fraud or professional money laundering networks.

Payments and ownership structures increase complexity

The report notes that modern gaming and gambling ecosystems increasingly rely on cash, e-wallets, mobile money and virtual assets. These payment channels can connect gambling activity directly to the wider financial system and allow funds to move rapidly across borders.

FATF also warns that beneficial ownership arrangements may be structured to avoid regulatory thresholds, while related actors such as software developers, digital marketplaces and social-media platforms may sit outside parts of the traditional gambling regulatory perimeter.

What the new indicators mean for AML compliance

The publication is not a new FATF Recommendation or a new binding rule. Instead, it provides practical indicators intended to help governments, regulators and private-sector firms identify and respond to suspicious activity in a risk-based manner.

For gambling operators and financial institutions serving the sector, the practical implication is that transaction monitoring should not focus only on the amount wagered. Customer identity consistency, source and destination of payments, account behaviour, ownership structure, links to offshore operators and patterns suggesting movement of funds without genuine gambling activity may all be relevant to risk assessment and suspicious transaction reporting.

The report also reinforces a broader trend in FATF’s recent work: online platforms, virtual assets, cross-border payment channels and professional money laundering networks are increasingly being assessed as interconnected rather than as separate financial crime risks.

Sources

• Financial Action Task Force, “FATF warns of emerging risks in gaming and gambling and publishes new risk indicators”, 9 September 2026.
• Financial Action Task Force, “Risks of Gaming and Gambling”, 9 September 2026.