(Jamma) The European Parliament, meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg, approved the "report on organized crime, corruption and money laundering: recommendations on actions and initiatives to be taken", for which the MEP of the Ppe Salvatore Iacolino. On 7 May, the Special Commission on Organized Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering had approved, with 24 votes in favor and 5 abstentions, the mid-term report prepared by Iacolino: speaking in the Chamber, the PPD MEP thanked "all those who made this achievement possible, which was supported by an important contribution from all the political groups". The one approved today is “a mid-term report, which serves to clarify important political guidelines that the Commission and the member states will have to put into practice in the coming months. In October there will be the vote on the final report”.
The text voted today dedicates several paragraphs to gambling: in particular it establishes that the European Parliament "recommends the adoption of measures aimed at systematically identifying and monitoring gamblers, prohibiting the use of anonymous payment instruments for stakes relating to online gambling and to prevent anonymity in online gambling by allowing the identification of the servers that host them and by developing computer systems which allow complete tracking of money movements made through online and offline games”.
The Parliament “welcomes with favor the broadening of the scope proposed in the so-called fourth anti-money laundering directive with regard to gambling; Calls on the Commission to propose a legislative framework and appropriate measures against money laundering phenomena linked to betting, in particular on sports competitions, by defining new crimes, such as the manipulation of sports bets, and appropriate levels of penalties and by supporting monitoring mechanisms involving federations sports, associations, online and offline operators, as well as, where necessary, national authorities; Urges sports organizations to develop a code of conduct for all their staff which clearly prohibits the manipulation of sports matches for betting or other purposes, prohibits them from betting on their own matches and includes an obligation to report if they become aware of match-fixing, accompanied by an appropriate whistleblower protection mechanism; notes that money laundering by organizing bets on sporting events is the work of organized crime; therefore calls on the Commission to present a legislative proposal containing a common definition of the crimes of corruption and sports fraud; calls on the Member States not to authorize betting on matches that have no impact on the standings and to ban riskier forms of sports betting; also recommends the introduction, at national level, of mechanisms for reporting suspicions of corruption in sport, on the model of those established on money laundering, which online and offline game operators or all players in the world of sport should adhere to ”.
It then underlines "the need to strengthen cooperation and the exchange of information between the Member States, the related regulatory bodies, Europol and Eurojust, in order to combat criminal activities related to cross-border online gambling". Parliament also “acknowledges that online gambling is an increasingly popular way of laundering money, that winnings in this area are often tax-free, that the large volumes of transactions make it extremely difficult to detect dirty money and that the large number of subjects involved in the processing of payments further complicates the system; calls for the establishment of a regulatory framework to combat money laundering through any form of online gambling; recommends the introduction of a European licensing scheme for online betting which will make it easier to trace money movements made through online gaming within the European Union; urges the Member States to include in criminal law a harmonized definition of "combiners" and to create a legal instrument to combat this phenomenon, to establish sanctions in this regard, including including fines as well as confiscation, and to create within the law enforcement a unit specializing in the fight against match-fixing to serve as a platform for communication and cooperation with key stakeholders with a view to further investigations and referrals to judicial authorities; calls for increased cooperation at European level, under the coordination of the Commission, to identify and fight operators of the online gambling sector involved in the manipulation of match results and other illegal activities; calls on sport governing bodies, the Member States and the Commission to invest in awareness campaigns on the phenomenon of match-fixing aimed at athletes and highlighting the legal consequences of this crime as well as the negative effects on the integrity of sporting competitions".
