Philippines-based gambling operators are but one presidential signature away from new anti-money laundering requirements.

On Tuesday, the Philippine Senate unanimously approved the third reading of Senate Bill 1468, which seeks to include gambling operators – land-based, online and shipboard – as well as junket operators as ‘covered persons’ under the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).

The Senate’s vote came one day after the House of Representatives unanimously approved its own version of the plan. All that’s required now is for President Rodrigo Duterte to sign the measure into law, a step Duterte is expected to take early next month.

The votes came in the dying days of the current legislative session, as legislators were attempting to meet a June deadline imposed by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), which had urged the Philippines to rectify its refusal to include gambling operators as ‘covered persons’ when it approved the AMLA several years ago.