ADM confirms €100 weekly cash top-up limit for Italian gaming accounts

Italy's Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) has issued a determination confirming a €100 weekly limit on cash top-ups for gaming accounts, according to comments by Ranieri Razzante, a university professor and president of the Italian Association of Anti-Money Laundering Officers (Aira). Razzante told Agimeg that the measure was awaited by the sector and by consultants and scholars of the subject.

According to Razzante, the determination sets out which payment instruments can be used and requires players who want to top up by more than the €100 limit to go through their gaming account. He said Article 3 lists the requirements that must be met by anyone using a payment method other than cash.

Razzante said the measure addresses what he described as unjustified disputes over the traceability of financial flows in the gaming sector, and that it recognises the autonomy of gaming rules from anti-money-laundering rules. He said the reorganisation decree had set a cash top-up limit that he had always considered inconsistent with the average level of cash play in Italy, given that online has now overtaken land-based.

He also said the determination does not restrict the practical operations of concessionaires, which he said had identified technical instruments not to circumvent the cash limit but to make its safe use in gaming easier. According to Razzante, operators holding the dual qualification of PVR and financial intermediary agent will be a reference point for anti-money-laundering obligations for both concessionaires and payment service providers. He said the measure contributes to making the legal gaming sector safer and discourages players from turning to the illegal circuit.