Casinos in the Philippines asked to store digital records

The Anti-Money Laundering Council has asked the casino operators to keep digital records of their activities in their own databases. The council issued the guidelines in order to promote the implementation of new measures to combat money laundering under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Last year, the council established that all casinos would have to ask for an identity document from gamblers and keep records of their activity for five years. However, this year there were further changes that require operators to file a report within five working days in the event of any “covered transaction” where the amount involved is €80k or larger.

Casinos should be able to quickly deliver records to compliance officers or other authorised personnel or even upload records to the council, the watchdog explained. Said quick digitalisation is expected to allow authorised officials to analyse finances of customers proactively.

 “If money launderers and terrorists discover our investigation, it is a foregone conclusion that they would spirit away their assets, and thereby defeat the intention of the law,” commented Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat executive director Mel Georgie Racela.

Source: FocusGN