The country’s swift crackdown on illegal online gambling by foreign nationals may improve its international financial reputation after all.
Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg expressed this view, reassuring citizens that the kingdom was firmly on the right track in combating financial crime.
During a recent interview, Rijkenberg addressed growing public concern about the recent arrests of over 200 Asian nationals suspected of operating an illegal online gambling operation locally.
He was responding to an element of anxiety that such incidents could lead to the country being greylisted or blacklisted by international financial monitoring bodies.
However, Rijkenberg sought to allay these fears, explaining that countries were typically greylisted or blacklisted not merely for isolated criminal activities, but when such activities become entrenched and were allowed to continue unchecked.
In other words, the designation was applied when money laundering, terrorist financing, or other financial crimes were systemic and authorities fail to take appropriate enforcement measures.
“Countries get black and grey listed when there is a continuous and perpetual exercising of these activities taking place. It is when these activities become embedded and are not caught out. The fact that these activities have been brought to book in the country, especially at a stage when they were just starting, proves that we are doing the right thing from an anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism perspective,” he said.
The minister emphasised that the kingdom’s prompt response demonstrated that the country had strong monitoring systems and proactive enforcement mechanisms. He said the country had shown brilliance in capturing it straight away and so from that perspective anyone wanting to greylist Eswatini would be doing a wrong thing because the country had been proactive on this matter. If anything, it proved that the country’s systems were in place to catch these kinds of activities.
Rijkenberg added that, rather than being penalised, the swift enforcement could potentially improve the country’s global ratings, reflecting international confidence in the nation’s ability to prevent illicit financial operations.
“As a country, I think we should be able to actually go up in our ratings because of the fact that we were so quick to get on top of it,” he stated.
Greylisting is an international warning status most commonly issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global body that monitors compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) regulations.
Countries placed on the greylist were not entirely banned from international financial systems, but flagged as higher risk, prompting banks and investors to scrutinise transactions more carefully. Consequences of greylisting could include stricter oversight of international payments and financial transactions, potential reduction in foreign investment due to perceived risk and increased economic pressure to reform regulatory and enforcement frameworks.
In contrast, countries were blacklisted when financial crimes become systemic, weak enforcement, and authorities fail to act. Blacklisting often resulted in severe international sanctions and isolation from global financial networks.
The recent crackdown in the country bears striking similarities to enforcement operations elsewhere in Asia, highlighting a growing pattern in transnational cybercrime. In Indonesia, for instance, authorities recently conducted one of the country’s largest-ever raids on illegal online gambling operations, arresting 321 foreign nationals. The suspects, mostly from Vietnam and China, allegedly ran more than 70 betting websites from a single commercial building in Jakarta, managing customer service, financial administration, telemarketing, and digital platforms targeting victims abroad.
Many suspects had overstayed their visas, and the operations were part of a wider network displacing activity from countries like Myanmar and Cambodia, where governments have recently intensified crackdowns.
Indonesian officials reported detecting the movement of online gambling operators into new host countries following enforcement actions, suggesting that syndicates seek locations with less stringent monitoring systems.
Locally, the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) worked quickly to dismantle a suspected illegal online gambling network involving more than 200 Asian nationals. National Commissioner of Police Manoma Vusi Masango confirmed this week that REPS is collaborating with Interpol to trace victims linked to the alleged scheme and to ensure proper prosecution.
He said while formal communication with Indonesian authorities regarding similarities in the cases is still pending, any correspondence would be handled through Interpol channels. Investigations are still ongoing, and authorities are evaluating how to engage international victims, potentially requiring them to travel to Eswatini to assist with prosecution.
