ANJ Review Concludes Operators Have Made Significant Progress on AML Strategies

French gaming regulator l'Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has completed its review of anti-money laundering (AML) action plans submitted by licensed operators for 2023, and has acknowledged "significant progress" made since 2022.

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However, the ANJ also noted that "a margin of progress is necessary" for some operators.

Licensed operators in France are required by law to submit annual action plans that detail their strategies to counter fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing. While ANJ mostly approved operators’ plans for 2022, it concluded that some improvements could be made.

In a statement, the ANJ said, "To a very large extent, the operators have complied with the prescriptions and recommendations that the ANJ sent to them in 2022 and are now on an upward compliance trajectory."

The regulator conducted three action plan assessments, analyzing how licensed operators implemented anti-money laundering rules, counter-terrorism financing rules, ANJ’s 2022 recommendations, and their formulated action plans for 2023.

ANJ recommended that operators pay attention to rules regarding freezing of assets, verifying the status of a politically exposed person, and creating guidelines for emergency declaration procedures.

The ANJ rejected one action plan submitted by Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU), citing insufficient measures in the fight against fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing, and a lack of human resources for adequate checks and updated risk analysis. PMU must submit a new action plan within one month after discussing the matter with ANJ services.