Guide

What is AML at an online casino: why the cashier wants your documents

AML is anti-money-laundering, the set of rules that oblige a casino to know who its customer is and where the money comes from, and it is the reason the cashier asks for a passport before the first withdrawal, a bank statement after a large one, and refuses to pay out to a method you never deposited with. This guide sets out what the rules require, where the EU's threshold sits, how the checks show up in practice, and how to tell a check from a stall.

Written by Checked by GnomVRN

Illustration for What is AML

What the rules require

The international framework comes from the Financial Action Task Force, whose recommendations every regulator in this site's reviews follows in some form, and in the EU from the anti-money-laundering directives that name providers of gambling services as obliged entities. An obliged entity must identify its customers and verify the identity against a reliable document, understand the purpose of the relationship, monitor transactions, report suspicious activity to the national financial intelligence unit, and keep records. A casino licensed in Curaçao or Anjouan is bound by its regulator's version of the same duties, and the card schemes add their own: gambling carries merchant category code 7995, which Visa places in the top tier of its integrity risk programme, and an acquirer that processes it demands the casino's AML programme as a condition.

The three questions

  • Who are you: passport or identity card, sometimes a selfie with it
  • Where do you live: a utility bill or bank letter with the address
  • Where is the money from: a statement, payslip or proof of the deposit source

The threshold and the trigger

The EU's fourth directive, Directive 2015/849, sets the figure most often quoted: providers of gambling services apply customer due diligence on the collection of winnings, the wagering of a stake, or both, on transactions of EUR 2,000 or more, in one operation or in several that appear linked. Industry guidance repeats the threshold and the EU's newer AML package, a regulation and a sixth directive, is reshaping the framework, so the number should be read as the fourth directive's and checked against the regulation as it applies. Offshore casinos are not bound by it and mostly run the identity check earlier, at the first withdrawal of any size, because a verified account is cheaper to pay than an unverified one is to investigate.

Beyond the threshold, the trigger is pattern. A deposit followed by a withdrawal with little play between them, a withdrawal to a method that did not fund the account, deposits from several cards, a sudden jump in stakes, or a name on a sanctions or politically exposed persons list, each starts an enhanced check, which is where the source-of-funds request comes from.

Closed loop

Winnings go back to the deposit method, in the deposit method's proportion where several were used, and only the surplus, if any, goes elsewhere. That rule is why a card deposit cannot be withdrawn to a coin address at most brands, and why the reviews note the few that allow it.

How it shows up at the cashier

At the brands reviewed here the sequence is consistent: an account is opened on an email and a phone, deposits are accepted unverified, and the first withdrawal request opens the document upload. The reviews record what each casino's terms require and what support said about the check, and the norm regulators cite is that a check a person reads takes about a day or two. Source-of-funds requests come later, after larger deposits or a large win, and the document that answers them is the statement showing the deposit leaving your bank. A casino that accepts crypto deposits still asks for identity, and some, CryptoBoss among them, treat the coin deposit's wagering separately for that reason.

The KYC guide in the bonus section walks through the upload itself, document by document; this page is the why behind it.

What speeds it up

Register in the name on your documents, deposit from an account in that name, upload the documents before the first withdrawal, and keep the deposit and withdrawal method the same. Most delays readers report are a name mismatch or a cropped document.

A check against a stall

A check asks for a specific document and closes when it is supplied. A stall asks for nothing specific, repeats that the account is under review, and keeps the balance. The French regulator's fraud guidance, reported in September 2026, states the principle that a suspicion alone does not justify withholding a player's balance, and while its licensees serve France, the principle is the one to hold a casino to anywhere: an AML check has an object, and a hold without one is a refusal wearing its clothes. The blocked account guide sets out the steps from that point.

Where this feeds the reviews

The support mark on every scored brand includes how support answered our questions about the cashier, and the trust mark falls where readers report a check that turned into a hold with no document requested.

Where this applies first

The two lowest-wagering codes we verified, with the slot, the multiplier and the cap on each card.

Questions about AML

Why does a casino ask for my bank statement

Because anti-money-laundering rules require it to know where the money it accepts comes from once activity passes a threshold or looks unusual. A statement showing the deposit leaving your account, or a payslip, answers the source-of-funds question; the passport and the utility bill answer who you are and where you live.

What is the EUR 2,000 threshold

The EU's fourth anti-money-laundering directive, Directive 2015/849, requires providers of gambling services to apply customer due diligence on transactions of EUR 2,000 or more, whether in one operation or several linked ones. Casinos licensed offshore apply their own thresholds, and most run the identity check before the first withdrawal regardless of the amount.

Why must I withdraw to the method I deposited with

Closed-loop withdrawal is the standard anti-laundering control: money goes back where it came from, so a casino cannot be used to move funds from one account to another. A withdrawal to a different card, wallet or coin address is refused or held for a manual check.

How long does an AML check take

A document check that a person reads takes about a day or two, and the reviews on this site record what the terms of each casino promise for it. A check that runs longer with no request for a specific document is a delay, and the blocked account guide says what to do about it.

Last updated - Checked by: Karssen Avelar