4 Key AML Topics all UK & EU Gambling Operators should be aware of in 2026
1. It could be a busy year for operators in Europe as the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (“AMLA”) ramp up their mission to deliver a unified, risk-based, and technologically advanced approach to preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. In early February they launched three further public consultations as well as publishing the Single Programming Document 2026 – 2028 with five key activities that will form the basis of their work in 2026:
Delivering on core regulatory mandates
Advancing direct supervision
Operationalising the FIU framework
Laying the foundations for indirect supervision and oversight
Building AMLA’s risk frameworks
These are just five of the twenty-four mandates AMLA will deliver this year, visit their website to find out more AMLA sets strategic priorities with 2026-28 Single Programming Document
What does this mean for operators? Lots of consultation! Make sure you have your say.
2. UK operators can expect to see the Gambling Commission (“GC”) publish a new money laundering (“ML”) and terrorist financing (“TF”) risk assessment this year following the publication of the National Risk Assessment (“NRA”) by the government in July 2025.
It’s not going to be good news for remote and land-based casinos as the NRA upped the risk rating from low to medium. The GC as the supervisor for ML / TF will be therefore expected by the treasury to mitigate the reasons behind the rating increase driven by changes to customer, geographical and transactional risks. Think MSBs, recreational spend by criminals, new methods of payment, and new types of games. New risks will come from what we saw in recent emerging risk bulletins – think use of AI to bypass CDD requirements and crash games.
Could be time to refresh yourself with the recent casework trends and emerging risk bulletins.
3. Sticking with the GC, the UK are continuing with the preparations for the 2027 FATF mutual evaluation. Many of you will remember that the GC were singled out with praise from FATF in 2018 for their ‘very strong understanding of risk at both a sector and firm level’ – I imagine they enjoyed that recognition and will want it again.
If that read as a good news story, it wasn’t meant to be. This could be bad news for operators, especially casinos who are in the regulated sector for AML and therefore of interest to FATF. Could we see targeted AML compliance assessments for casino operators or even major updates to the GC’s AML guidance?
4. Crypto currencies, at the time of writing, have had a very turbulent few months with huge fluctuations in value. Putting that aside, it could be an interesting 2026 with many countries keen to embrace and regulate these markets to stimulate economic growth.
2025 saw landmark global advances, and many governments are stating they wish to improve regulation to ensure consumer protections are in place.
Does this mean regulated markets are closer to being able to accept crypto payments for casinos and sportsbooks with confidence? Could this payment method go any way towards reducing the use of the illegal markets that happily accept crypto with little or no safety?
Will 2026 be the year crypto finally forms part of the traditional financial sector? We hope so, the industry had a pretty rough 2025 from a regulatory point of view, this could be some good news.
We’d love the chance to discuss these with you and how Betsmart Consulting can help your business with all aspects of compliance and risk management, get in touch today info@betsmartconsulting.com
Written by: Nigel Harvey