Online gambling accounted for 76% of the suspicious activity reports filed in 2022, making it the largest reporting sector for the FIU. However, the total number of reports submitted for online gambling was 28% lower than in 2021.
The FIU, which processes suspicious activity reports in Guernsey, received a total of 2,656 reports in 2022, down by 26.2% from the previous year. These reports are filed in accordance with the country’s laws, including the 2022 Terrorism and Crime law.
Despite its prevalence in reporting, the risk of money laundering in online gambling was deemed to be low. Most operators also submitted these reports to authorities in the UK. It is worth noting that one licensee is responsible for 89% of all suspicious activity reports in the online gambling sector.
The two main reasons for reporting in the online gambling industry were detrimental open source information and non-compliance with due diligence requests. The majority of suspicious reports were made in May, June, and July, averaging over 200 reports per month. May had the highest number of reports, with 346 submitted, the most ever in a single month for the online gambling industry.
While the money laundering risk was low, the FIU observed an increase in reports related to fraud, false accounting, and forgery. Out of a total of 441 reports in this category, 299 stemmed from online gambling activity. The FIU connected 275 of these reports to an organized crime group involved in fraud and referred the case to UK law enforcement.
