GGRAsia – UN warns of risks of online gambling in Southeast Asia

A new report from a United Nations (UN) agency has raised concerns about the growing risks associated with transnational criminal groups in Southeast Asia, which use “unregulated casinos, junkets and illegal online gambling platforms that offer cryptocurrency.” have adopted’.

The policy report, titled ‘Transnational Organized Crime and the Convergence of Cyber-Enabled Fraud, Underground Banking, and Technological Innovation: A Shifting Threat Landscape’, was released this month by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The report points out that “the transnational organized crime threat landscape in Southeast Asia is evolving faster than at any other point in history.”

“This change has been marked by the growth in the production and trafficking of synthetic drugs and cyber fraud, driven by highly sophisticated syndicates and complex networks of money launderers, human traffickers and a growing number of other service providers and enablers.” added.

Despite increasing law enforcement efforts, the UN agency estimates that cyber fraud “has continued to increase, resulting in estimated financial losses of between $18 billion and $37 billion from scams targeting victims in East and Southeast Asia by 2023 ”.

The UNODC suggested that “the sheer volume of proceeds generated within the region’s thriving illicit economy has necessitated the professionalization and innovation of money laundering activities,” adding that transnational criminal groups in Southeast Asia “are emerging have emerged as global market leaders.”

It stated: “Building on the existing underground banking infrastructure, including under-regulated casinos, junkets and illegal online gambling platforms that have adopted cryptocurrency, the proliferation of high-risk virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in Southeast Asia has now emerged as a new vehicle through which this has has taken place, serving criminal industries without accountability.”

Masood Karimipour, UNODC Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said in prepared remarks that organized crime groups were “growing together and exploiting vulnerabilities, and the evolving situation is rapidly exceeding the capacity of governments to contain it.” .

He said criminal groups were producing “fraud, money laundering, underground banking and online scams on a larger scale and more difficult to detect.”

Mr Karimipour added: “This has led to the creation of a criminal services economy, and the region has now become a major testing ground for transnational criminal networks looking to expand their influence and diversify into new industries.”

The report outlined recent cases that it claimed show “how under-regulated online gambling platforms and increasingly risky and often unauthorized VASPs… are being used by major organized crime groups to move, launder and integrate billions in criminal proceeds into the financial system. without accountability”.

The cases investigated “also highlight how illegal online casino operators have diversified their business activities to include cyber fraud and crypto-based money laundering services.

“Extensive evidence shows the influence of organized crime within casino complexes, special economic zones and border areas (in Southeast Asia) to conceal illegal activities,” it added.