Kazakhstan proposes AML liability for gambling executives

Kazakhstan has proposed holding executives of casino, sports betting and lottery operators accountable for anti-money laundering breaches, with penalties extending to those responsible for financial monitoring.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has prepared a draft order outlining the proposed measures.

Under the draft, executives and employees responsible for financial monitoring could face liability for failing to comply with, or improperly implementing, legislation on combating money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Liability would extend beyond direct involvement in illegal financial transactions to include failures to follow mandatory financial monitoring procedures.

In March, Kazakhstan launched its Unified Monitoring System for Gambling, which helps monitor operators' transactions.

Under current regulations, gambling operators must screen clients, monitor suspicious transactions and report them to the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA). In specific cases, operators must refuse transactions or end relationships with clients.

FMA uncovers illegal gambling scheme involving bank representatives

In a separate development from Kazakhstan, the FMA has uncovered an illegal gambling scheme linked to local bank employees.

Banking sector representatives facilitated access to payment infrastructure for illegal operators, signing contracts without mandatory verification and assigning the appropriate merchant category codes (MCCs) to internet terminals.

The scheme used a multi-layered infrastructure to process player funds, including payment organisations, bank acquiring services, POS and internet terminals, e-wallets and cryptocurrency instruments.

An alleged illegal online casino operation involved transactions worth more than KZT 188bn ($413.6m) and was linked to the brands Nomadgames, Sultangames and their mirror sites.