Kazakhstan’s Financial Monitoring Agency said it unveiled a large-scale scheme that involved cross-border transactions to online casinos, exposing the money trail that funds illegal gambling.
According to a statement from December 8, the Agency estimates the total volume of illicit transactions to exceed 600 billion tenge ($1.2 billion).
The Agency said that online gambling platforms are illegal because they do not pay taxes or conduct customer identification. In addition, they “actively attract children.”
The funds were routed through payment institutions using “gray” POS terminals and Terminal ID transactions, disguised as legitimate transactions, and siphoned off to online casinos.
In a video message, Yernar Taizhan, a representative of the Agency, said that the investigation led to a number of raids and seizure of evidence.
“More than 20 payment institutions, as well as individual officials from commercial banks, were implicated in the scheme,” Taizhan said.
In addition, the Agency confirmed that nine individuals, including the advisor to the head of the Almaty-based Association of Payment Organizations, were detained. Eight more individuals were placed on international wanted lists.
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