Denmark Orders Inpay to Halt New Online Gambling Business Over AML Failures

Denmark’s financial regulator has ordered payments provider Inpay A/S to stop establishing new business relationships with online gambling companies after an inspection uncovered serious anti-money-laundering failures.

The temporary restriction, dated August 17, followed a review conducted in March 2026 by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, Finanstilsynet. The regulator said Inpay must demonstrate that the identified breaches of Denmark’s Money Laundering Act have ended before it can resume onboarding new gaming-sector clients.

The enforcement action does not amount to a suspension of Inpay’s wider payments business. Instead, it places a targeted block on new commercial relationships in a sector that the authority considers especially vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing.

Inspection Found Gaps in Customer Controls

According to the Finanstilsynet decision, Inpay could not document that it had applied adequate customer due-diligence procedures and transaction monitoring to its online gambling clients.

The regulator identified shortcomings when customers’ relevant circumstances changed, as well as failures to assess the purpose and intended nature of relationships involving businesses classified as high risk. It also found that Inpay’s ongoing monitoring of online gambling customers was insufficient.

Finanstilsynet said the scale of the problems made the violations particularly serious. The findings concerned most of the company’s customer portfolio, which also represented a significant portion of its overall transaction volume. Complex ownership structures and commercial activity spanning multiple countries added to the authority’s concerns.

Inpay is a Danish electronic-money institution licensed under the country’s Payments Act. Its business model is centered largely on facilitating cross-border payments for corporate clients in online gaming, many of which are located outside Denmark and frequently beyond the European Union.

Regulator Highlights Visibility Problem

The decision also draws attention to a structural issue for payment companies serving gambling operators: the distance between a provider and the players generating deposits.

Finanstilsynet said Inpay lacked visibility into payments made by operators’ end users. Combined with weaknesses in customer checks and transaction monitoring, that limitation contributed to what the regulator described as a real and significant risk that the company could support illegal gambling activity or unauthorized payment services.

For licensed operators, payment processing is part of the compliance chain connecting customer verification, deposits, withdrawals and ongoing player transactions. The Danish action shows that oversight does not stop with the gaming company; financial intermediaries may also be expected to understand ownership structures, licensing exposure and the intended nature of their commercial relationships.

The order is therefore relevant beyond Inpay. Gambling businesses depend on payment partners to move funds across markets, currencies and regulatory systems. A provider that cannot accept new gaming clients may face slower growth, while operators seeking new banking arrangements could encounter longer reviews and more extensive requests for corporate and licensing documents.

Restriction Tied to Documented AML Improvements

Finanstilsynet’s order is directed specifically at the establishment of new business relationships involving online gambling companies. The published decision does not announce a general suspension of Inpay’s authorization as an electronic-money institution or order the company to stop serving every existing client.

No fixed end date was included in the announcement. Instead, the restriction is tied to a compliance milestone: Inpay must supply documentation demonstrating that the serious violations of the Money Laundering Act have ceased. The company’s ability to resume expanding its online gaming portfolio therefore depends on satisfying the regulator that its controls have been corrected.

That structure makes remediation, rather than a predetermined penalty period, the central issue. Inpay will need to show that its due-diligence procedures respond appropriately when customer circumstances change, that high-risk relationships are adequately assessed and that ongoing monitoring is strong enough to address the risks identified during the inspection.

Payments Firms Face Greater Gambling Scrutiny

The case underscores how anti-money-laundering supervision increasingly reaches the infrastructure supporting digital gambling, not only the operators that directly hold player accounts. Payment institutions occupy a critical position because they connect gaming companies, banks and customers across several jurisdictions. Their services support the wider online gambling ecosystem, including player accounts, deposits, withdrawals and platforms offering casino games available online.

That role can become more difficult when clients operate outside the EU, use layered ownership structures or serve players in multiple regulated and unregulated markets. In such cases, regulators may expect providers to update customer records when risk profiles change, establish why each relationship exists and monitor activity throughout the life of an account.

For Inpay, the immediate challenge is to prove that its procedures now meet those requirements. For the wider gambling payments sector, the message is equally direct: rapid cross-border processing must be supported by due diligence and monitoring capable of keeping pace with the risks.

By GamesAndCasino