MGA probing winnings in Tumas Group casinos
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Newsbook.com.mt received that the Malta Gaming Authority are asking the Tumas Group to provide details of all winnings and winners at its casinos from 2019, Newsbook.com.mt recached out to both the Tumas Group and the Malta Gaming Authority.
In a statement signed by CEO Ray Fenech, the group is denying any knowledge of wrongdoing and said that it had invited the MGA to carry out independent inquiries on its gambling machines.
The MGA did not answer our questions to verify or deny the reports that the authority has formally requested details related to the Oracle Casino in Qawra on Friday morning and whether or not it is true that they are expected to make a similar request for the group’s other casino, the Portomaso Casino.
News of the probe arrives a day after reports stated that Austrian company Novomatic, a leading supplier of slot machines and other casino games, cut ties with the beleaguered group in view of its current legal situation.
Its former CEO Yorgen Fenech – the incumbent’s nephew – and four associates have been arraigned over suspected money laundering through Glimmer Ltd, a company in which both Yorgen and Ray own shares.
Online chats scrutinised by the police in relation to other criminal investigations suggest that money was being laundered through fraudulent winnings at the Oracle Casino.
The group is no stranger to enforcement action in relation to its gambling operations: just last April, it was slapped with a €233,156 fine by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit which found systematic breaches of anti-money laundering regulations.
In 2018, court testimony had shown that Alfred Degiorgio – one of the men accused of carrying out the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, allegedly at the behest of Yorgen Fenech – had gambled some €457,000 at the Portomaso Casino over the years, walking with suspiciously-high winnings of €441,000. He was registered unemployed at the time.
In his statement, Ray Fenech disassociated the group from any wrongdoing in relation to the Glimmer Ltd case, and expressed “disappointment with and disassociation from” other allegations made in respect to his nephew.
He insisted that the group had no knowledge of any illicit transfer of funds, and that the possibility of manipulation of gambling machines “would not be possible.”
Nevertheless, Fenech added, the group took such allegations seriously, and thus asked the MGA to carry out independent inquiries.
