The Gambling Supervision Authority under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter – the Gambling Supervision Authority) imposed a fine of 495,900 Euros on UAB “Olympic Casino Group Baltija” for failing to additionally verify the identity of three gamblers who played at the gaming tables in the casino located in Panevėžys and exchanged cash for chips totaling 42,200 Euros, did not register them in the mandatory logbook, and thus committed a gross violation of the requirement of Article 9, Part 9 of the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of the Republic of Lithuania.
In 2018, the Gambling Supervision Authority conducted an unscheduled special inspection at the casino of UAB “Olympic Casino Group Baltija” located in Panevėžys, during which the company's compliance with the requirements for organizing gambling and preventing money laundering and terrorist financing was assessed.
During the inspection, it was found that in the company's casino, 3 gamblers exchanged cash for chips totaling 42,200 Euros within 14 hours in one day. These transactions were not recorded in the registration log. According to the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of the Republic of Lithuania, the company was required to re-identify the identity of customers who performed related cash-to-chip exchange transactions exceeding 1,000 Euros in one day. Upon identification, such financial transactions had to be continuously and immediately recorded in the registration log.
Failure to comply with the customer identification requirements, according to Article 34 of the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of the Republic of Lithuania, is considered a gross violation of this law.
The Gambling Supervision Authority imposed the fine in accordance with the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of the Republic of Lithuania, which provides for the possibility of imposing fines of such size for gross violations in this area: from 2,000 to 1.1 million Euros for the company.
The decision of the Gambling Supervision Authority can be appealed in court.
Source www.lpt.lt
