ADM to gain governance checks on licensees under EU AML reform

Italy's ADM will gain the power to assess the governance members of its gambling licensees for integrity and professional requirements under the EU anti-money-laundering reform, Stella Liberato, an official in the ADM's controls office, told the National Anti-Money-Laundering Forum 2026 in Milan. Liberato said the reform will bring greater supervisory powers, more checks on financial flows and cryptocurrencies, and a single EU rulebook for gambling.

Liberato said Italy is currently transposing the Sixth Directive and that ADM is working with other authorities on the draft decree. She said the gambling sector will see more supervisory powers, more obligations, stronger investigative capacity, greater traceability of flows and a significant increase in checks in both depth and breadth, with supervision of the non-financial sector placed on the same footing as that of banks and intermediaries.

On governance checks, Liberato said the new framework requires that licensees' governance members meet integrity and professional requirements, as in the financial sector. She said the power involves a degree of intervention by the authority, which she said is justified by the aim of having gambling companies run by people with the required qualifications.

The reform also provides for greater transparency from gambling service providers towards authorities on beneficial ownership, through a register of beneficial owners containing the details of the natural persons behind fundamental decisions, Liberato said. She said this will allow authorities to identify international companies, licensees with foreign accounts and other entities, and that enhanced customer due diligence is planned and will be strengthened.

Liberato said authorities will have access to a range of financial information on the movement of financial flows, which she said will make it easier for ADM and supervisory authorities to reconstruct flows and pursue the prevention of money laundering. She said the EU legislator also addressed cryptocurrencies to prevent anomalous instruments from enabling or facilitating money laundering, particularly in gambling.

She said the reform provides for a sharp increase in sanctions for all recipients of the rules, including gambling licensees, which must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive and will no longer be limited to financial penalties but may extend to the removal of governance members. She said this could affect operators' reputation and their continued presence in the market, and described the reform as historic for those working in gambling, adding that ADM will do its part alongside other sector authorities.

Liberato said the gambling sector represents and will continue to represent a sector requiring attention from the European and Italian legislator because it is particularly exposed to money-laundering risk, with branched operations, easy use of anonymous instruments and simulated bets. She said Italy, despite presenting a high money-laundering risk, is considered to have adequate rules and a risk framework.