Law stemmed from 2016 cyber-theft
Casinos in the Philippines now must adhere to official anti-money laundering standards: documenting customer identities, maintaining records of gambling activities and reporting unusual transactions.
According to GGRAsia, starting January 4 gaming halls in the country were required to keep records of gambling activity for at least five years and report suspicious transactions to the Anti-Money Laundering Council within five working days. This includes transactions by people suspected of involvement in serious crimes such as financing of terrorism or drug activity.
The Philippines’ amended Anti-Money Laundering Act was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in July and took effect in November. Until that time, casinos were noticeably exempt from AML rules. The situation made headlines after the 2016 scandal in which cyber-thieves allegedly hacked $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank through an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The money was diverted to four accounts at a Rizal Commercial Banking Corp branch in Makati, Metro Manila. Only $15 million has been returned to Bangladesh, according to reports.
“The inclusion of casinos in the Anti-Money Laundering Act coverage addresses one of our deficiencies in the standards provided under the Financial Action Task Force recommendations,” said Dennis Funa, Philippines insurance commissioner on the new law. “Thus, it eliminates the possibility that the Philippines will be blacklisted by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering.”
