proposal in this regard has been submitted by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to the Finance Ministry after it carried out an assessment of the sector recently, in terms of detecting and reporting suspicious and counterfeit currency transactions.
According to sources, the panel - Casino Sector Assessment Committee (CSAC), headed by the FIU Director, has recommended that the Casino business in India should be brought under a "comprehensive legal framework" while "autonomous regulators or Gaming regulators" could be created for strengthening the anti-money laundering and combating financing of terror regulations in the sector.
The FIU, the nodal agency for receiving, analysing and disseminating data related to doubtful transactions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), has also recommended to the government that the Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines prevalent in the sector at present should be reviewed and brought at par, as stipulated by global financial bodies like the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Strengthening money laundering laws in the casino sector is one of the major recommendations of the FATF -- a global financial body set up by G-7 nations in 1989.
