EU AML package (AMLR / AMLD6 / AMLA)
The EU AML package is a set of laws adopted in 2024 that overhauls anti-money-laundering rules across all 27 Member States. Its centrepiece is the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), a directly-applicable 'single rulebook', complemented by the Sixth AML Directive (AMLD6) on national supervision and by a regulation establishing a new EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). The package was published in the Official Journal in June 2024. It replaces much of the previous directive-only approach, which had allowed rules to differ widely between countries.
AMLR — Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 — is the 'single rulebook': directly binding, harmonised rules on customer due diligence, beneficial ownership, internal controls and suspicious-transaction reporting for obliged entities.
AMLD6 — Directive (EU) 2024/1640 — governs national supervisors, Financial Intelligence Units, beneficial-ownership registers and access to information; Member States must transpose it into national law.
AMLA — Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 — creates the Authority for AML/CFT, seated in Frankfurt, to coordinate national supervisors and directly supervise a set of high-risk cross-border entities.
Timeline: the package entered into force in July 2024; AMLA began operating in mid-2025; most AMLR rules apply from 10 July 2027, with AMLD6 transposition also due by 10 July 2027.
Providers of gambling services are obliged entities, carried over from the earlier 4th/5th AML directives, so online gambling is squarely within scope.
Member States may exempt certain low-risk gambling services (but not casinos) from parts of the regime where a proven-low-risk assessment justifies it.
AMLR introduces measures such as an EU-wide cash-payment limit and stricter beneficial-ownership rules that also touch corporate structures behind operators.
Online gambling providers are expressly 'obliged entities' under the AMLR, so from July 2027 they must apply the same harmonised CDD, beneficial-ownership, monitoring and reporting rules as banks — reducing the divergence operators currently face between EU markets. Larger cross-border gaming groups could fall under AMLA's coordinating or direct-supervision remit, and the single rulebook narrows the room for national 'low-risk' carve-outs, which never extend to casinos.
Reference, not advice. This is a teaching summary of the AML framework — not legal advice, and not an operational compliance procedure. Confirm requirements against the primary regulator and your own counsel.