Austrac Accuses A Range of Aussie Casinos for Money Laundering
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Australian land based casino operators are feeling the heat after the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) raised serious concerns over potential money laundering taking place at multiple land based casinos throughout the country.
Austrac is the financial watchdog in Australia and one of the responsibilities of this government run agency is to keep a close watch on money laundering activities. In the past, the online casino industry was smeared with money laundering allegations and it resulted in Australia passing legislation to ban all forms of online gambling.
Multiple Operators Accused Of Money Laundering
Austrac has pulled up two of the biggest casino operators with Crown Resorts and rival Star Entertainment receiving notifications from the watchdog regarding potential money laundering at their properties. Crown Resorts which is the biggest casino operator in Australia has received widespread media attention down under as the controversial casino operator has been investigated in multiple states due to serious compliance breaches.
Hence it does not come as a surprise that Crown Resorts has been accused of money laundering as its former chairman and billionaire JamesPacker admitted to the NSW gaming regulator that they had engaged with junket operators who had ties to the Asian criminal syndicate and did not follow anti-money laundering laws fully.
Star Entertainment was not implicated in any money laundering allegations until recently. The third operator that has received a notice from Austrac is SkyCity Entertainment which is a New Zealand based casino operator that has operates just one casino in Australia – SkyCity Adelaide in South Australia.
All this comes at a time when Australia has an outright ban of online casinos offering real money play in Australia which they said were primarily being run by people laundering money. The hypocrisy and obvious slant to lobbyist has become very clear and maybe this is the first attempt to rectify the imbalance.
Austrac Finds Multiple Concerns
Austrac’s main role is to carefully monitor financial transactions and flag those that they think are suspicious. Since casinos are known to be targeted by criminals who want to launder money, Austrac and state gaming regulators have emphasized to Australian casino operators, the need to strictly comply with anti-money laundering procedures.
However, casino operators in Australia and around the world tend to deliberately turn a blind eye on occasion and allow their high stakes players to gamble millions of dollars away in a sitting. The casino operator compromises on its anti-money laundering procedures in order to appease their high rollers who don’t want the casino to closely scrutinize their source of funds.
Austrac claims that casino operators have violated its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) Rules Instrument 2007 and the Australian Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006.
Crown Resorts – Biggest Culprit
Crown Resorts is currently under investigation in New South Wales (NSW), Victoria and Western Australia. The NSW gaming regulator suspended Crown Resorts license to run its A$2.2 billion Crown Barangaroo casino which opened in early 2021. The NSW regulator has completed its investigation and is now deliberating whether it should give Crown its license back and allow the casino floor at Crown Baragaroo to reopen.
Crown Melbourne which is the flagship casino of Crown Resorts is currently under investigation. The Victorian gaming regulator launched a detailed investigation into Crown Melbourne once Packer admitted to the NSW gaming regulator that there were multiple breaches in compliance.
Crown has now confirmed that Austrac has launched an investigation into Crown Perth over potential money laundering allegations that is reported to have taken place.
Star Entertainment – Sydney Breach
While Crown Resorts has faced multiple charges in recent years, its rival Star Entertainment has maintained a rather clean front. Star Entertainment recently submitted a bid to acquire Crown Resorts and was confident that it would get the necessary approvals it needed to complete a big acquisition and create a massive gaming portfolio in Australia.
Star Entertainment confirmed that Austrac has sent it a notice with regards to its Star Sydney casino and potential breaches in compliance over its AML and CTF programs and concerns over due diligence with their customers. These alleged non-compliance incidents goes as far back as 2015.
Austrac will launch an investigation of their own and will then determine what regulatory charges it will have to impose on Star.
SkyCity Entertainment – Adelaide Concerns
The New Zealand casino operator which runs the SkyCity Adelaide casino has told its shareholders that it has received a notification from Austrac regarding money laundering breaches at its Adelaide casino. SkyCity shareholders were informed that the breaches were classified as serious non-compliance and Austrac had requested more information from their side.
SkyCity released a statement and said that it is fully committed to stopping money laundering activities and promised to offer full cooperation to Australian authorities.
NAB Bank – Also Investigated
Austrac has also gone after National Australia Bank (NAB) which is one of the four biggest banks in Australia over breaches with their know your customer (KYC) process and lack of due diligence with their customers. A formal investigation has been launched against NAB but as of now no civil penalty proceedings will be taken.
