Whistleblower reporting; transmission of a tip-off in the event of violations of the Money Laundering Act by gambling operators and intermediaries

If you have information about a violation of the Money Laundering Act by organizers and intermediaries of games of chance, you can report this to the responsible government.

Money laundering is the process by which illegally obtained assets are smuggled into the legal economic cycle and removed from the reach of law enforcement authorities.

For this reason, the Money Laundering Act imposes specific obligations on representatives of certain professional groups, which are intended to help prevent money laundering and the misuse of legitimate companies for money laundering. With a few legal exceptions, this also includes organizers and brokers of games of chance.

If you have information about possible or actual violations of the Money Laundering Act (for example: a company does not identify its contractual partners), you can report this to the responsible supervisory authority either personally or anonymously.

Whistleblowers can make a valuable contribution to uncovering the misconduct of individuals or entire companies and to containing or correcting the negative consequences of this misconduct.

Whistleblowers are an important source of information for the supervisory authorities about the organizers and brokers of games of chance. Such reports may contain confidential information that whistleblowers learn from their employment relationships or other contractual or confidential relationships and which they bring to the attention of the competent supervisory authority.

The competent supervisory authority investigates each tip-off and checks whether there has been a breach of supervisory regulations. The supervisory authorities protect your identity by offering you the opportunity to submit your information anonymously in an uncomplicated manner via an electronic whistleblower system.

The government responsible for the location where the public game of chance is organized or brokered is responsible for receiving reports concerning organizers and brokers of games of chance.

Information on violations in the context of money laundering supervision can be reported to the competent supervisory authority either personally or anonymously, regardless of a threshold value.

However, it should be noted that reporting via the anonymous whistleblower system is not the same as reporting a reportable suspected case to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which is part of the customs authorities. If a suspicious case exists, it must always be reported to the FIU via the "goAML" portal (see "Related topics").

You can report your information on violations of the Money Laundering Act to the above-mentioned office via the electronic whistleblower system or by other means. Anonymous submission is possible.

You can access the electronic whistleblower system under "Online procedure".

If you wish to submit your report by other means, the procedure is as follows:

• You prepare a written report about the potential or actual violation of the Money Laundering Act. If available, enclose evidence.
• Submit the report to the competent supervisory authority. The competent supervisory authority is displayed in the BayernPortal after entering the location under "Select location".
  The report can be submitted by post, by e-mail (for an anonymous submission, e.g. via an e-mail address set up at short notice with subsequent deletion) or via a lawyer.
  
  
• If your contact details are available and the competent supervisory authority has any queries, your report can be discussed. In the case of an anonymous report, further processing will take place without contacting you.
• If the information indicates a suspected criminal offense, it will be forwarded to the local public prosecutor's office or police station and followed up there.

For reports on violations by Bavarian casinos: see separate page under "Related topics"