European online gambling licences and regulatory authorities have been advised to apply customer due diligence requirements to transactions reaching €2,000.
The provision has been drafted as new “technical guidelines” from AMLA, the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority, to prevent money laundering.
This October, AMLA submitted a new draft report on “technical standards to identify the criteria of money laundering or illicit transactions” for the European Commission to consider as policy for individual EU member state authorities.
New guidelines aim to “strengthen the Union’s framework for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (‘AML/CFT’)” and “harmonise the preventative measures to be put in place at Union level”.
The report seeks to establish “criteria for identifying business relationships and linked transactions”.
Gambling is viewed by AMLA as a non-financial high-risk area, in which licences should elevate due diligence on “low threshold transactions”. New guidelines build on AMLA’s consultation launched on 9 February 2026, which covered financial and non-financial businesses, including gambling.
The €2,000 gambling due diligence threshold already exists under EU anti-money laundering legislation and remains in the new regulation, which applies from July 2027.
Authorities in Sweden, France, Germany, and Spain have already applied due diligence checks to transactions of €2,000 covering stakes, winnings, or both.
Know your provider
Further recommendations call on regulatory authorities to consider a mandatory-checks policy, noting that “games are provided by the same provider when assessing whether transactions share an identical or similar purpose.”
Operators must also assess broader indicators, including payments involving the same customer, coordinated activity, shared digital infrastructure and transactions completed within a short timeframe.
These factors require an overall assessment. Transactions involving the same gambling provider should not automatically be counted together in AMLA advice that “No single criterion should be regarded as decisive in isolation.”
AMLA revised the draft after gambling businesses warned that routine transactions and loyalty schemes could “trigger false positives”. Operators must assess the wider commercial context before treating transactions as linked to business.
Swedish Inspectorate backs AMLA application
Spelinspektionen, Sweden’s Gambling Inspectorate, responded to the AMLA’s draft technical guidelines in an update published on 22 October, offering a positive opinion on “sector-specific criteria and customer verification requirements.”
“These standards were developed in close cooperation with national supervisors and informed by feedback from a broad range of stakeholders through written consultations and hearings.”
For Swedish gambling licences, Spelinspektionen will begin the application of AMLA guidelines in a forthcoming update on 10 July 2027.
The accompanying technical standards still require European Commission approval and publication in the EU’s Official Journal, with AMLA proposing a six-month period after their entry into force for businesses to prepare.
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