The Association of British Bookmakers ABB, which had lobbied for exemption, welcomed the decision this week. Many bookmakers had been fearing the worst.<\/p>\n
\n“The ABB believes that the Treasury has come to the right decision with regard to the risk relating to money laundering in high street betting shops,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n“ABB members will continue to focus on ensuring land-based operators remain low risk in relation to money laundering, both through direct action and engagement with relevant regulators and industry bodies such as GAMLG [Gambling Anti-Money Laundering Group].”<\/p>\n
The ABB is currently at loggerheads with the government over plans to reduce the maximum stakes on fixed odds betting terminals from \u00a3100 ($123) per spin (every 20 seconds) to just \u00a32 ($2.46). The industry body has claimed such a move would cause 20,000 job losses and threaten half of the nation\u2019s bookmaking shops with closure.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt would also have an adverse effect on the racing industry, which would lose \u00a3100 million ($123 million) a year in media rights and racing levy contributions, says a report by KPMG on behalf of the ABB. The government would lose \u00a31 billion ($1.2 billion) in taxes, and meanwhile the bookmaking industry would be \u201cdevastated,\u201d claims the report.<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UK bookmaking industry has been exempted by the country\u2019s Treasury from the new Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive, thus escaping the onerous and expensive fate of conducting due diligence on every transaction of \u20ac2,000 (\u00a31,740 \/ $2,150) and above. As the industry breathed a heavy sigh of relief, the government said the decision had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":47155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
UK Betting Industry Exempted from Punishing AML Directive<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n