Anjouan Gaming has tightened conditions for its internet-gaming licences and strengthened application requirements following the Financial Action Task Force’s new assessment of financial-crime risks in gambling. The authority said robust know-your-customer checks and continuing due diligence were baseline obligations for licensees, and that the changes were intended to keep its framework aligned with evolving global anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing standards.
The changes apply to the licensing framework administered by Anjouan Gaming for the Autonomous Island of Anjouan. FocusGN reported the update following the FATF’s Sept. 9 publication of its Risks of Gaming and Gambling report.
Anjouan Gaming has not disclosed which individual licence conditions or application requirements it altered. Its statement therefore establishes a policy tightening, but does not allow a comparison of the new standards with the prior rules.
The authority’s published framework requires every Internet Gaming Licence applicant to undergo regulatory due diligence before a licence can be granted. Applicants must submit corporate-registration, ownership and control documentation, demonstrate financial resources, and provide source-of-funds records. The regulator reviews corporate chains to identify beneficial owners and significant controllers, and screens applicants, key individuals and beneficial owners against sanctions, politically exposed-person and adverse-media databases.
Licensees are also subject to continuing, risk-based supervision. They must make periodic compliance reports on AML controls, responsible-gaming measures and financial performance; Anjouan Gaming can initiate targeted reviews when risk indicators warrant it, order corrective action, and bring formal enforcement proceedings if deficiencies remain unresolved.
As we reported on Sept. 9, the FATF’s study was its first detailed examination of risks associated with online and illegal gambling. It drew contributions from 80 jurisdictions, written comments from 29, and consultation with industry bodies, researchers and other private-sector stakeholders.
The report spans casinos, betting, other non-casino gambling, online video and mobile gaming, and illegal operators. It says online, cross-border and multi-payment platforms have created an interconnected value-transfer ecosystem in which some participants may fall outside national AML/CFT regimes.
FATF highlighted online-account warning signs including repeated VPN use, mismatches between a customer’s claimed and detected location, multiple accounts under the same or false names, and inconsistencies between betting-account and payment details. It also flagged opaque funding, unexplained wealth, shared devices, transactions structured below reporting thresholds, withdrawals disconnected from meaningful gambling activity and potentially coordinated betting.
The task force described illegal and unlicensed offshore gambling as a significant risk, noting that illicit markets rival or exceed legal ones in some countries. It recommended stronger licensing and registration rules to stop criminals controlling gambling operators, alongside greater international cooperation and information sharing.
Anjouan Gaming had issued more than 1,650 Internet Gaming Licences by its July 14 report, with nearly 1,500 active. The authority issues both B2C and B2B licences, while stressing that an Anjouan licence does not automatically authorise an operator to offer gaming services in every jurisdiction.
