{"id":13535,"date":"2021-01-19T23:34:11","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T23:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=13535"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:34:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:34:45","slug":"poker-machines-concern-nsw-crime-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/poker-machines-concern-nsw-crime-commission","title":{"rendered":"Poker machines concern NSW Crime Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New South Wales authorities’ annual report finds poker machines have become a vehicle for money laundering crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- In its annual report for the 2019-2020 period, the New South Wales (NSW) Crime Commission<\/strong> has raised questions about the potential use of poker machines<\/strong> for money laundering<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report comes after the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) reported that profits from poker machines<\/strong> increased considerably in November and December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaming machine profits reached AU$582.7m (US$447.9m) in November and $629.6m in December, up 1.8 per cent year-on-year in November and 6.5 per cent in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last half of 2020, poker machine profits<\/strong> in the state totalled $4.4bn, which is $400m more <\/strong>than in the same period in 2019 despite restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crime Commission believes poker machines in New South Wales have become the vehicle for money laundering <\/strong>due to their high load-up limit, which is significantly larger than in other Australian states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report reads: \u201cIt is possible that Australia will be perceived as a safe haven for the legal and illegal transfer of international funds<\/strong> following the way it is handling its Covid-19 response.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closure of casinos limited the chances for such illegal activity, and the Commission believes that the recovery from the pandemic prompted a return of money laundering through poker machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, NSW is preparing an amendment<\/strong> for the current regulation of gaming machines<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/strong>. The Gaming Machines Amendment Bill 2020 will focus more on problem gambling issue than on avoiding money laundering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New South Wales authorities’ annual report finds poker machines have become a vehicle for money laundering crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The New South Wales Crime Commission's annual report for 2019-2020 identifies poker machines as a significant vehicle for money laundering, attributing this to high load-up limits and increased profits despite pandemic restrictions. The report suggests Australia could be perceived as a safe haven for illicit funds, with a shift from casinos to poker machines for such activities. Concurrently, the Gaming Machines Amendment Bill 2020 in NSW is noted to prioritize problem gambling over specific anti-money laundering measures.","focusai_entities":"New South Wales Crime Commission, NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA)","focusai_location":"Australia, New South Wales","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"AML Bill Impact","query":"What specific amendments are being considered for the Gaming Machines Amendment Bill 2020 to address the identified money laundering vulnerabilities, beyond its stated focus on problem gambling?"},{"label":"Operator Risk Mitigation","query":"How are gaming machine operators in NSW revising their internal AML governance frameworks and transaction monitoring protocols to mitigate the risks highlighted by the Crime Commission's report?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[23911,23909],"class_list":["post-13535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-slot-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13547,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13535\/revisions\/13547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}