Italy’s Financial Intelligence Unit has identified remote gaming as the gambling segment with the greatest exposure to money laundering and terrorist financing, pointing to identity theft, front men, varied payment channels and collusive practices as central vulnerabilities.
The assessment appears in UIF Notebook No. 36, published in July after a December 2025 Bank of Italy seminar on improving suspicious-transaction reporting by gaming operators. PressGiochi’s account of the proceedings says betting exchanges bring a further risk because a player can act as the banker.
The warning comes against a large market backdrop. Italy’s gaming turnover reached about €157 billion in 2024, up roughly 7% from the previous year. Net wagers totalled €21 billion and estimated gaming tax revenue was about €10 billion.
The proceedings also identify particular risks at the boundary between physical and online play. Physical outlets can be used to open online accounts and to make cash or otherwise untraceable payments, including through vouchers. The UIF highlighted frequent cash or cash-equivalent top-ups, such as vouchers and on-shop instruments that turn cash into digital credit, and called for clear, uniform rules on the traceability of payment instruments.
Payment cards not registered to the gaming-account holder are another online vulnerability. By contrast, among land-based products, video lottery terminals and fixed-odds betting were described as relatively higher risk, while bingo, numerical games and land-based lotteries had a lower profile under the UIF’s assessment.
Suspicious-transaction reports from the sector fell from 12,000 in 2023 to 9,547 in 2024. The Notebook associates that decline with greater attention to reporting quality. Reports then rose to about 6,400 in the first half of 2025, 37% higher than in the same period a year earlier.
The UIF’s emphasis is on reports that combine a financial-risk assessment with a profile of the customer or other subject, rather than precautionary filings that repeat existing information. It said automated anomaly-detection systems could cut low-significance reports, but could not replace organisational controls and a final human assessment.
Italy introduced gaming-specific anomaly indicators in May 2023, covering online and land-based gaming. The indicators include activity inconsistent with a customer’s economic or financial profile, use of distant or changing IP addresses and devices, repeated use of different or untraceable payment instruments, and bets split to avoid identification requirements.
For physical gaming, distributors and retailers must identify customers and retain information for transactions of €2,000 or more, suspicious activity and video-lottery tickets worth at least €500. They must pass relevant data to the licensee within 10 days.
The supervisory structure has also changed. Criteria effective from July 10, 2025 designated the Economy and Finance Ministry as supervisor for the non-financial sector, including gaming. The Customs and Monopolies Agency remains the sector authority and checks concessionaires’ anti-money-laundering compliance, while the Guardia di Finanza retains responsibility for controls and inspections and the UIF receives, analyses and disseminates reports.
In 2024, the UIF found shortcomings in customer due diligence, risk profiles, checks on politically exposed persons, use of beneficial-owner information and internal sharing of risk data. Separate reporting on the UIF’s annual anti-money-laundering work recorded 273 Guardia di Finanza checks of gaming operators and distributors that year, identifying 30 administrative violations.
Physical and online gaming providers remain subject to anti-money-laundering obligations under the EU AML package, while the new Anti-Money Laundering Authority has regulatory, supervisory, coordination and assistance functions covering financial and non-financial sectors, including gaming.
