A Greek government plan to outlaw anonymous payments via e-wallets for activities including betting and gambling has been abandoned, to the relief of e-money payment providers and former state-owned betting operator OPAP, which is planning to launch its own e-wallet.

The controversial Article 71 was drafted as a result of the government’s early-stage plans to harmonise with the EU’s 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4th AMLD), slated to come into effect across the continent in June 2017.

Although the overall intent of the measure is to ensure all e-wallet payments are linked to an identification process, paragraph 4 of the bill’s Article 71, circulated last Monday, sought to outlaw all representation of, or participation in, e-wallet transactions by betting and gambling companies, describing them as being at a high risk of money laundering.

A representative of one e-wallet provider in Greece told sister publication GamblingCompliance that the measure came as a surprise and sparked intensive lobbying efforts.

“The larger banks were not aware of this law having been drafted,” he said.

Until the review brought about by the implementation of the 4th AMLD, e-wallet transatcions below