National Lottery on Reynders allegations: ‘Abnormal gaming behaviour was reported’
The National Lottery says it fulfilled its legal obligations and reported abnormal gaming behaviour to the competent authorities following money-laundering accusations against former minister and European Commissioner Didier Reynders.
Reynders was questioned for several hours last week over allegations that he had been laundering money for years using lottery e-tickets. Questions were then raised in the federal parliament about the efficiency of control mechanisms at the National Lottery.
The organisation’s board met on Tuesday to discuss the allegations. “Regarding the specific case, the National Lottery complied with its legal obligations and reported to the competent authorities abnormal gaming behaviour that could be an indication of possible money laundering offences,” it said in a press release.
'Politically sensitive identity'
The Lottery found in 2021 that one outlet had sold remarkably large numbers of e-vouchers, which allow players to upload money on their profiles to play online. An investigation followed, which determined that most of those vouchers could be linked to two players’ accounts, belonging to someone with a “politically sensitive identity”.
Consultant KPMG was commissioned to investigate further with the Lottery, after which a report was filed with the federal prosecutor’s office in March 2022.
The Lottery has always “fully cooperated with the investigation”, the board says, but blocking transactions, closing player accounts or blocking the sale of e-vouchers through outlets could not be done as it may have hampered the judicial investigation.
Apart from the Reynders case, there are rules in place governing the sale of lottery products that make money laundering difficult.
'Costly and unattractive'
Players are required to have their identity checked via their national register number or Itsme when opening an online account, there is a winnings limit of 500 euros a week and anything over this amount must be transferred to a bank account. The stakes are usually low, as is the final payout.
Players see an average return of 60 per cent of the amount they wager. “This makes any activity with less honourable objectives very labour-intensive and disproportionately time- and energy-consuming,” the board said. The European Commission describes it as “a costly and unattractive form of money laundering”.
Reynders “disputes the criminal qualification given to the facts”
Still, Reynders’ accounts attracted attention. “It was the repeated combination of playing limits over a long period of time that raised suspicions,” the National Lottery said. “Never before has a player accumulated several gaming limits in a similar manner.”
Reynders, of francophone liberal party MR, has not yet commented on the allegations and has not yet been charged. Last week he let it be known through his lawyer that he “disputes the criminal qualification given to the facts”.
Reynders was Belgium’s Finance minister from 1999 to 2011 and later Foreign Affairs minister. He was responsible for overseeing the National Lottery during his tenure as Finance minister and became EU Commissioner for Justice in 2019.
European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, October 2024 © PHOTO HANS LUCAS COLLECTION
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