House OKs bill including casinos in AMLA

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill including casinos in the coverage of the Anti-Money Laundering Law (AMLA).

The committee on banks and financial intermediaries chaired by Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone endorsed the bill.

Evardone pointed out the House, in moving to include casinos in the coverage of AMLA, “aims to protect the gaming industry from illegal activities so it can grow and attract more gamers and investors.”

The measure sets at P5 million the threshold amount that would require casinos to report suspicious transactions to the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

In the case of banks, the threshold amount is only P500,000.

Evardone and representatives Josephine Sato of Mindoro Occidental, Winston Castelo of Quezon City, and Henry Oaminal of Misamis Occidental are among the authors of the bill.

Sato said the February 2016 diversion of Bangladeshi funds by hackers to Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and eventually to local casinos “exposed the vulnerability of these gaming establishments to illegal activities.”

“There is a need to amend the law to protect our casinos from money laundering by crime syndicates,” she said.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has reiterated its recommendation for the inclusion of casinos in AMLA following the $81-million Bangladeshi cyber heist.

The huge amount was diverted by hackers to four bogus accounts in the Jupiter, Makati branch of RCBC. A large part of the money ended up with local casinos.

The AMLC is still tracing and trying to recover the stolen funds up to now. It has returned to Bangladesh about $15 million, which was surrendered by businessman Kim Wong, who brings in foreign gamblers to play in casinos here.

Wong has claimed he did not know the funds were stolen.

FATF is the watchdog formed by developed nations to monitor money laundering activities and compliance by nations with international standards that aim to prevent the movement of money earned by illegal activities.

Sato said the government could not ignore the FATF recommendations, since doing so would mean sanctions that would translate into higher cost of remittances for overseas Filipino workers.