AGA Issues Updated AML Compliance Guidelines for the Gaming Industry

American Gaming Association (AGA) launches the third edition of the Best Practices of AML Compliance resource on Thursday

The American Gaming Association (AGA) released its third edition of AML Compliance Best Practices for the gaming industry on Thursday. The country’s top compliance experts reviewed and revised the document updated by the AGA, and reflected on the new laws, technologies and indicators that detect criminal activity.

The AGA’s Vice President of Government Relations, Alex Costello stated in the new release, “As the methods and sophistication of financial crimes evolve, the gaming industry continues to spearhead efforts to combat money laundering, An invaluable resource for our industry, this guide demonstrates gaming’s commitment to protecting the U.S. financial system from money laundering and other forms of illicit finance.”

The resource document “Best Practices For AML Compliance” for the gaming industry was last updated in 2019. AGA highlighted the key milestones and changes made since then.

Major changes are made to the Bank Secrecy Act by congress via the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. 

FinCEN announced the federal exceptive relief for defined types of ID verification for the gaming industry. The sports betting and iGaming states legalized in additional sixteen states. About a dozen gaming jurisdictions agreed on the use of digital payments and types of cryptocurrency. New types of cybercrimes and fraudulent activity have surfaced.

These new changes are approved that provide the updated guidelines with expanded red flag indications, current compliance obligations, and the revised definitions of critical laws that are essential for the gaming firms to maintain their secure and safe AML status.

🚨 RELEASE: Today, the AGA published the 3rd edition of its Best Practices for Anti-Money Laundering Compliance resource to reflect new laws, technologies, and indicators of criminal activity.

Full details ➡️ https://t.co/0iQms591Cq pic.twitter.com/CUvYwEajDK

— American Gaming Association (@AmericanGaming) July 28, 2022

The AGA noticed that the casino gaming sector is identified as one of the leading industries in AML compliance. The gaming industry also achieved a comprehensive set of best practices for AML compliance in 2014, becoming the first industry to collectively establish the guidelines.

The sector also filed around 55,000 reports that suspected illicit activity to assist law enforcement in fighting money laundering activities. In addition to it, the AGA represents gaming on BSAAG (Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group) which is organised by FinCEN to collaborate with stakeholders in the financial industry. 

In addition to the new resource, AGA also released a new resource for another area called the “Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking in the Gaming Industry” which marks the first step of the authority in the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force. This aims to support efforts in the gaming sector.

Suggested Read: Gaming & Investment Firms in Malta Penalised with €4.6M for AML Failures