Astana, 29 October. The Astana department of the Financial Monitoring Agency has completed its investigation into a group suspected of running the illegal online casinos Nomadgames, Sultangames and their mirror sites: transactions worth more than 188 billion tenge were carried out through electronic terminals as part of the scheme, the agency said; the case has been sent to court.
According to investigators, a multi-level payment infrastructure was used to take players' money: payment organisations, bank acquiring, POS and internet terminals, e-wallets and cryptocurrency. According to the agency, representatives of the banking sector took part in the scheme: they connected the payment infrastructure, signed contracts without mandatory checks and assigned the necessary merchant category codes to internet terminals (an MCC is the code by which a bank identifies the recipient's line of business). Payments were made under the guise of legal betting and other business.
To launder the proceeds, according to the agency, a controlled limited liability partnership was used: 10 billion tenge arrived in its accounts under a fictitious contract. The money was then converted into cryptocurrency and transferred to the suspects' wallets – investigators traced movements of digital assets worth 19 million USDT. With a court's sanction, three flats, six cars, crypto assets and money in bank accounts worth 1.4 billion tenge have been seized.
Three suspects are in custody, three have been released on bail and two are under a travel ban. Other details, the agency explained, are not subject to disclosure under Article 201 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Advertising for these casinos regularly appeared to viewers watching films online.
What it means: The illegal casinos relied not on a single front account but on access to banking infrastructure: according to investigators, such turnover would have been impossible without people inside banks.
What we know now: The case is in court; the court will decide on the suspects' guilt. The agency does not name the banks and payment organisations involved.
Background: Online casinos are banned in Kazakhstan; only licensed bookmakers may legally accept bets over the internet. In July the agency shut down the Nomad Poker online casino with a turnover of 7.5 billion tenge, which, according to investigators, was run by Kazakh citizens from Georgia.
