Who Gets the Money?

When an online casino decides that you have not provided adequate information (payment verification) to meet AML requirements who keeps your deposits and winnings? Where do they go and can you follow the path of the the money once it’s confiscated?

I Also wonder if the casino keeps these funds are they not benefiting from proceeds of crime?

The casino keeps the money, there is no possible way to track such funds unless they are crypto, and even then it's not something truly doable because there are many ways to make crypto really hard to trace (or nearly impossible). When a casino confiscate funds for whatever reason they keep them

So the casinos are withholding amounts from customers when they claim suspicious transactions but don’t pass the monies to any regulating body, government body from players home country ? I guess now I see why some companies confiscate huge sums of monies from customers. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Betplays, Cloudbet, Stake, Gamdon all have cases where deposits not 100% traceable and they keep huge sums of deposits and winnings with no repercussions.

That's quite an interesting question and I see that another player answered it for you. It's definitely something I'm interested in and maybe I'll look into it a bit more in the future and find out more information about it. 

Why did you think of it? 

Hi Jaro,

I was thinking of this question in relation to a couple of current complaints on Guru.

Another question in relation to this is: in most countries if you were to find a large sum of money, say on the road, and you kept it and you were aware that it was proceeds of a crime you would be charged criminally.

So it’s ok for these Casinos to stand behind their T&Cs and AML policies to steal/ confiscate supposedly dirty money.

This practice in itself would bE money laundering would it not?

It's definitely interesting and we dealt with a similar case today, but AML cases are sometimes complicated because we don't have that much reach. 

I know we are going to have a presentation in about two weeks on exactly this kind of thing, so I hope we will get some useful information there. 

However, I would assume that the casinos should not keep this money and report it either to the authorities or to some institution that is designed to do that. I also think that if they did keep it, then it could be a problem. 

So that's kind of my take on the whole thing, but exactly how it's going, I can't say for sure, but like I said, I hope to find out.

The handling of confiscated funds by online casinos is a complex issue. While specific regulations may vary depending on the jurisdiction where the casino is licensed, there are some general principles that apply: Retention of Funds: Typically, casinos are required to hold onto confiscated funds until the matter is resolved. This can involve providing additional documentation or verifying the source of funds. Money Trail: Tracking the path of confiscated funds can be challenging, but it's often possible to do so with the help of the casino's financial department or regulatory authorities. Proceeds of Crime: If a casino knowingly retains funds that are suspected of being proceeds of crime, they could face serious legal consequences.

Thanks for the responses. I’m actually extremely interested in getting into this further.

Im not sure which path to follow but there should be some disclosure policy in regards to breakdown of funds that a given online casino has in trust when they do their yearly financials and any income that may be derived from confiscation.

Maybe I’ll just pick one and start digging.

What an interesting question!

As far as I digged up, the money is reserved at the casino - somehow blocked by the license provider or jurisdiction responsible for the AML investigation. Once the AML breach is confirmed, the money is given to the responsible body. Since the names and procedures may vary on a specific international level, we may generally say something like the national financial fraud unit takes care of the funds eventually.

I imagine this is just a very general picture; hence, if you dig out better specifics, I would love to learn more!