Bulgaria Forms New Agency to Fight Money Laundering in Gambling

Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency (NRA) is out to tighten the noose around prospective money launderers in the country’s expansive gambling industry. To help in this mandate, the NRA has launched a separate entity to help it combat money laundering crimes in the industry and to ensure that there is general compliance with the established Bulgarian Anti Money Laundering regulations in the country. The newly formed unit will be known as the Department for Prevention and Countermeasures against Money Laundering, and it is part of the country’s overall changes that have been introduced to change the framework of operations in the Balkan country.

What Led To The Formation of This Special Unit?

The formation of the new agency to fight money laundering in the industry comes after a comprehensive evaluation of the country’s vulnerable areas. Once the concerning results were released to the public, there became an immediate and incessant need to form a special department tasked with fighting against all the financial crimes perpetuated in the wider Bulgarian gambling industry. As part of the wider fight against money laundering in the country, the existing anti-money laundering laws are also poised to be amended to address the apparent loopholes that have been utilized in the past to perpetuate the said crimes.

 Besides the obvious need to eliminate any form of money laundering in the wider Bulgarian gambling industry, it is also worth pointing out that Bulgaria had previously avoided the radar of international anti-money laundering watchdogs due to its inclusion in the MONEYVAL committee’s advance monitoring program. That said, things have now changed. The Balkan country has since seen itself removed from this committee and it will surely be hopeful of the possibility that it may be removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF)’s grey list. Countries that usually have many incidences related to money laundering are usually added to this list which may not be so pleasing for the various countries’ reputations.

Should Bulgaria find itself in the said list, it will mean that it will face more oversight, with extra compliance costs added to it. There will also be extra controls put in place, with AML and Counter-terrorist financing controls (CTF) needing to be beefed up for the task force to consider removing the country from the doomed list.  That said, the FTAF will update the grey list in October to see if it needs to take extra steps. The list has of course seen some countries previously in hot waters, remove themselves from that position. A good example is Malta which had been listed before but was removed last year.

All Hands On Deck

The Bulgarian fight against money laundering is enlisting all the help that can be gotten. Major industry stakeholders are joining in the fight that could ultimately lead to the country permanently getting rid of money laundering. The Inter-ministerial working group will bring together experts from the NRA, the Ministry of Interior, the State Agency for National Security, the Financial Supervision Commission as well as other relevant departments.

The ultimate aim of the campaign by all these state agencies is said to be identifying emerging threats and weak points that may come about for instance, money laundering and terrorist financing. To further bring more clarity on the roles of the various licensed gambling providers in the country, the NRA's latest comments on the matter should clear up things. It read:

Quote

“Organisers of gambling activities (OGAs) will keep current information about their clients and their activity, periodically upgrading their databases where necessary. When it is impossible to clarify the origin of funds, and in cases where two or more identification mechanisms show conflicting results, OGAs are obliged to demand a written declaration from the customer or a party that represents them where they explain in detail funds’ origin. Any violations are to be immediately reported to the financial Reconnaissance unit of the National Security State Agency.”

Hefty Fines For Self-Exclusion

As part of its extensive efforts to restore order in the wider gambling sector, Bulgaria’s NRA also reported that gambling operators who happen to employ self-excluded individuals may be slapped with hefty fines ranging from BGN 5000 to BGN 20000. Further to this matter, the country has introduced a self-exclusion register that will hopefully prevent self-excluded persons from working in cahoots with gambling regulators. Self-excluded persons are also prohibited from accessing brick-and-mortar casinos in the country. On April 26th last year, the NRA announced that 7200 persons had enlisted themselves in the country’s self-excursion list. This means that these people had willfully excluded themselves from all the gambling activities per month. For privacy reasons, the self-excursion list is private and is only accessible to a limited number of people within the NRA ranks. As you can imagine, the startling figures show that the country is faced with a deep gambling problem, that ultimately needs urgent addressing.