London, UK - 22nd July 2025 - The UK Government has formally elevated its money laundering risk assessment for the casino sector, citing the explosive growth
London, UK - 22nd July 2025 - The UK Government has formally elevated its money laundering risk assessment for the casino sector, citing the explosive growth of online gaming and associated changes in transactional risk. In the “National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing 2025,” published by HM Treasury and the Home Office, the risk level for casinos was raised from ‘low’ to ‘medium’.
The report attributes this change primarily to the increased scale and volume of funds moving through remote casinos. It notes that since the last assessment in 2020, gross gambling revenue from remote casino slot games alone has surged by 52%, from £2.3 billion to £3.6 billion. The government concludes that this growth, combined with the inherent risks of non-face-to-face business and documented compliance failures, justifies the heightened risk profile.
The government’s decision is heavily substantiated by declining compliance standards recorded by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). According to the report, assessments conducted in the 2023-24 period revealed that half of all licensed casinos were not fully compliant with their obligations.
The statistics on customer due diligence are particularly stark. In 2024, 41% of inspected casinos were found to be non-compliant with Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) requirements, a significant deterioration from the 11% recorded in 2023. Similarly, non-compliance with all basic Customer Due Diligence (CDD) requirements rose from 7% to 12.5% over the same period. This trend of weakening controls provides a clear rationale for the government’s increased level of concern.
The national report places a specific focus on the structural risks posed by white label partnerships in the remote casino sector. It warns of historical and ongoing cases where licensees have conducted insufficient due diligence on their third-party partners, thereby creating significant AML vulnerabilities.
These concerns were brought into sharp relief in May 2025, when TGP Europe, a prominent white label operator, surrendered its UK licence following a UKGC investigation that resulted in a £3.3 million penalty. The Commission found that TGP Europe had committed serious breaches of AML rules, including failing to conduct adequate due diligence checks on its business partners and failing to properly consider the associated money laundering risks. The TGP Europe case serves as a potent example of the high-risk nature of these arrangements when not managed with stringent oversight.
Looking forward, the report identifies new and emerging threats that the industry must prepare for. It highlights the potential for increasingly sophisticated Artificial Intelligence to be used to create fraudulent identification documents capable of bypassing digital CDD checks.
Furthermore, the mechanics of “crash games,” which are growing in popularity on licensed platforms, have been flagged as a potential new avenue for money laundering. The nature of these games, which incentivise players to cash out quickly with minimal gameplay, mirrors the behaviour of those attempting to ‘clean’ funds, making suspicious activity harder to distinguish from legitimate play.
