Italian government publishes its ADM ‘fiscal decree’ controls

The Italian government has issued further insight on its new fiscal decree order, which will be enforced upon all licensed gambling incumbents.

Sanctioned on 16 October, the fiscal decree has been attached to the 5Star-DP coalition government’s first Budget Law mandate. It aims to provide Italy’s Customs & Monopolies agency ADM with the strictest controls to monitor gambling operators and their financial make-up.

As previously reported, the ADM will require all licensed gambling incumbents to submit their financial accounts and transactions to an ADM registry monitoring money laundering and tax evasion.

New decree ADM controls have been published in the government’s official gazette, detailing that:

• The ADM will have the authority to sanction ‘payment blocking orders’ on Italian financial institutions processing illegal gambling transactions.
• The regulatory body can issue fines ranging from €300,000 to €1.3 million on non-compliant payment firms and financial institutions.
• ADM governance can launch investigations of financial institutions or payment processors who are deemed to be non-compliant with fiscal decree-laws.
• The ADM can request Italian financial institutions to freeze all accounts related to gambling businesses deemed to have broken the law.

In addition, the 5Star-DP coalition government has moved to expand the scope of industry money laundering convictions, underlining that gambling AML crimes can be expanded to general management, corporate representatives and investors of a gambling business implacted in money laundering.

The new decree-law came into force on 27 October and will be submitted to the Italian parliament, where it must be converted into law within 60 days as prescribed by the Italian Constitution.