Kazakhstan dismantles cross-border illegal gambling network

The FMA says it has shut a call centre supporting four offshore gambling platforms.

Kazakhstan.- The Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) has dismantled what officials describe as one of the country’s largest illegal online gambling and payments operations. Investigators say the network routed funds through payment organisations and disguised gambling deposits as legitimate consumer activity, using POS terminals and Terminal IDs through forged agreements with betting companies.

The FMA says it has shut a call centre supporting four offshore gambling platforms, with 120 people from Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Spain and Vietnam implicated. Authorities said the group also ran a cryptocurrency-based affiliate programme that processed over US$200m in deposits and withdrawals, making it harder to trace fund flows through the traditional banking system.

More than 20 payment providers and several officials from second-tier banks have been identified as alleged participants in the scheme. Investigators carried out over 70 searches, seizing transaction records, digital devices and equipment allegedly used to mask gambling payments as everyday retail operations. Courts have ordered the pre-trial detention of nine suspects, including an adviser to the Association of Payment Organisations.

The FMA added that current findings represent “only the visible part” of the network. It said abnormal transaction volumes had been flagged by the National Bank over an extended period.

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The FMA says it has shut a call centre supporting four offshore gambling platforms. Kazakhstan.- The Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) has dismantled what officials describe as one of the country’s…