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After accusations that the iGaming sector is an easy target for money laundering, Lithuania’s authorities published new and stricter Know-Your-Customer (KYC) guidelines for gaming operators.
Lithuania’s Ministry of Finance and its Gambling Supervision Service said the new guidelines outline factors that gambling and lottery companies should seriously consider when assessing business relationships, monetary transactions and transactions related to the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.
Last year the Gambling Supervisory Authority was accused of not being able to deal with the threat of money laundering in casinos, while the remote gambling sector was pointed out as a high risk of such practices.
The new guidelines, which aim to bring the gambling sector into compliance with the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act, state: “The company should try to get as much information as possible from the client. Such information should be collected prudently and efforts should be made to verify the information provided by the client. All information provided by the client must be confidential and carefully protected in accordance with the law and the company’s procedures.”
The guidelines also state that all customers must be divided into risk categories according to various criteria, such as the size, nature, extent of the monetary transactions performed, the services purchased, past suspicious transactions, attempts to present a non-identity document, and actions to avoid registration or identification of monetary transactions.
