Italy seeks tightest control on gambling transactions

Italy’s new coalition government has revealed stringent plans to govern gambling transactions, combatting money laundering and organised crime.

The newly installed 5Star-DP government has published the draft decree for its 2020 Budget Law in which the government seeks to establish greater controls monitoring the payment processing capabilities for licensed gambling incumbents.

Draft fiscal provisions, see 5Star-DP prohibit Italian banks from processing any type of payment transaction associated with non-authorised gambling entities.

Supporting its mandate, 5Star-DP will establish a wide framework of penalties, with fines ranging from a minimum of €300,000 to €1.3 million on financial institutions deemed to have facilitated non-licensed payments.

In addition, for 2020, the coalition government will require all licensed gambling operators to sign-up to a new ‘single registry’ monitoring incumbents payment transactions, which will be governed by Italy’s Customs & Monopolies Agency (ADM).

Publishing its draft laws, 5Star-DP have stated that immediate actions are needed to govern gambling transactions, following the fallout from Italian Police’s ‘Glassia investigation’ – which saw Calabrian Mafias’ knowingly use bookmakers as money laundering vehicles.

Further industry concerns, see 5Star-DP weigh-up establishing new controls and standards governing gambling investments by private equity funds and individuals.  

Moving forward, Italy’s new coalition government states that the ADM must be empowered to ‘improve all controls on gambling’ as national regulator.