The Isle of Man’s online gambling industry has been flagged as having a medium risk of terrorist financing. That’s one of the main findings in the island’s first-ever standalone Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment (TF NRA), released this month.
In 2020, the risk level for gambling was considered low, so this new assessment marks a noticeable shift. It also places gambling among the key sectors that need stronger controls to help prevent terrorist financing.
“Whilst our Island is a comparatively safe place, we will make every effort to ensure terrorists cannot use our status as an International Finance Centre to finance their criminal activities.” – Jane Poole-Wilson, Isle of Man Minister for Justice and Home Affairs
“Of the 4 sectors reviewed using the full WB sectoral methodology, Banking, TCSP and Online Gambling sectors were all determined to pose a medium risk for TF,” the report stated.
In quantifying the risk, the report provided precise threat and vulnerability scores: “Online Gambling: 0.42 [threat] and 0.51 [vulnerability],” giving it one of the highest combined TF risk scores among all sectors assessed.
Isle of Man terror financing report points out online gambling risks
In response, the Gambling Supervision Commission says it’s planning some major changes. “The GSC have identified a number of controls that will be enhanced, including: Specific AML/CFT Guidance for Business to Business (B2B) businesses… and engage in outreach both to the sector and associated sectors around typologies and supervision practice,” the report said.
Further actions include plans by the GSC to “seek regulatory powers to apply civil penalties to an individual to enhance their current sanctions regime” and to introduce “a firmer mandate to apply risk-based licensing decisions to be able to react to emerging risk threats.”
The government admitted that it doesn’t have much hands-on experience with terrorist financing cases, which makes it harder to spot and deal with potential threats. “TF may be rarely, if ever, encountered whereas ML is more common… any warning signs of TF and the threats of and vulnerabilities to TF might not be as readily identified,” the assessment noted.
Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, Jane Poole-Wilson MHK, stated: “Whilst our Island is a comparatively safe place, we will make every effort to ensure terrorists cannot use our status as an International Finance Centre to finance their criminal activities.”
The TF NRA makes it clear that there’s still room for improvement in several key areas. “The assessment confirmed that there are areas where the IOM has adequate systems and controls in place… as well as areas where additional focus and action is required to both test and strengthen existing controls.”
“Industry must be able to show how they have considered and mitigated the relevant risks identified in this NRA,” the document instructed.
Featured image: Canva
The post Isle of Man gambling sector rated medium risk in its first terror financing report appeared first on ReadWrite.
