Philippines AMLC targets illegal casino proceeds routed through small business accounts

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AMLC targets illegal casino proceeds

Highlights

AMLC targets illegal casino proceeds routed through merchant accounts of ordinary businesses like salons and bakeries, citing suspicious volume and timing of small payments.
After Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas flagged thousands of illegal businesses on payment platforms in September, AMLC urges banks and e-money operators to identify suspicious merchants during onboarding and account monitoring.
The Philippines, removed from the FATF gray list in February 2025 but due for reassessment in 2027, faces ongoing money laundering risks and is considering legislative changes to include virtual asset service providers as covered persons.

Monitoring merchant accounts and enforcement response

As reported by BusinessWorld Online, the Anti-Money Laundering Council says it will act against illegal casino operators that pass gambling proceeds through merchant accounts registered to ordinary businesses such as salons and bakeries. The council says transaction behavior can expose these schemes when a business receives volumes and timing of payments that do not match its apparent operations.

The AMLC says it cannot discuss specific reports or investigations because the Anti-Money Laundering Act requires such information to remain confidential. It adds that when suspicious activity is detected or reported, it works with competent authorities to identify, investigate and address the risks involved.

The issue gained wider attention after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas flagged thousands of illegal businesses on local payment platforms in September, including online casinos posing as small stores, according to a Bloomberg report cited in the article. Authorities found some merchants were processing thousands of small payments, including transactions as low as P50 during the early hours of the day, which were later identified as online casino bets.

The AMLC says these arrangements conceal both the operator and the source of funds, leaving them outside the reporting regime that applies to licensed physical and online casinos. Because of that gap, banks, electronic money issuers and payment operators play a central role in spotting suspicious merchants during onboarding and account monitoring.

FATF scrutiny and planned legal changes

The council says the existence of illegal casinos alone does not determine whether the Philippines risks returning to the Financial Action Task Force gray list. It says assessors focus on whether covered persons detect and report suspicious activity, whether the AMLC turns those reports into usable intelligence, and whether supervisors and law enforcement act on the information.

The Philippines entered the FATF gray list in June 2021 and remained there for more than three years before its removal in February 2025. The global watchdog is due to reassess the country in 2027 to verify whether anti-money laundering controls are being sustained, and the AMLC says staying off the list depends on consistent action against emerging risks including online gambling, corruption and fraud.

In its latest National Risk Assessment published late last year, the AMLC says the Philippines remains under heightened threat of money laundering from crimes including drug trafficking, financial fraud and tax evasion, while overall vulnerability is rated medium across sectors including banks. It also rates terrorism financing and proliferation financing risks as medium, and says virtual asset service providers carry high inherent money laundering risk because of the speed, cross-border reach and pseudonymous nature of virtual assets.

The council is also pushing amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act to align the framework with FATF standards, including explicitly designating virtual asset service providers as covered persons regardless of which agency licenses them. AMLC Executive Director Ronel U. Buenaventura said in late September that at least five Senate bills and nine House bills containing the proposed amendments are pending before congressional committees.

Our earlier article on planned Philippine sovereign bond reforms and index inclusion explained how changes to government bond pricing and a bid for inclusion in a major emerging-markets bond index could improve liquidity and broaden the investor base. It also noted that the bigger payoff depends on stronger institutions and credible rule enforcement—alongside wider capital-market reforms—so lower funding costs and deeper markets translate into real-economy investment rather than just better trading metrics.

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