{"id":18705,"date":"2021-06-07T16:07:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T16:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=18705"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:50:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:50:47","slug":"australian-casinos-investigated-over-aml-compliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/australian-casinos-investigated-over-aml-compliance","title":{"rendered":"Australian casinos investigated over AML compliance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AUSTRAC is investigating all three casino operators due to potential non-compliance with AML rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia.- The national financial crimes watchdog\u00a0<strong>AUSTRAC<\/strong>\u00a0has announced it has launched investigations into Australia&#8217;s three main casino operators:\u00a0<strong>SkyCity, Star Entertainment Group and Crown Resorts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is looking into <strong>the operators&#8217; compliance with anti-money laundering laws<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SkyCity<\/strong>\u00a0confirmed that AUSTRAC is\u00a0<strong>investigating a compliance assessment<\/strong>\u00a0about how the company managed high-risk and politically exposed customers between July 2015 and June 2016 and between July 2018 and June 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for<strong>\u00a0Star Entertainment Group<\/strong>, AUSTRAC said it had identified &#8220;serious non-compliance regarding\u00a0<strong>ongoing customer due diligence&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0at Star Sydney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both companies have stated<strong>\u00a0they will fully cooperate<\/strong>\u00a0with the Australian regulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Crown Resorts<\/strong>\u00a0is also being investigated by AUSTRAC regarding<strong>\u00a0compliance breaches at its Perth casino<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company is already being investigated for cases of <strong>money laundering<\/strong>.\u00a0It currently faces <strong>Royal Commission<\/strong>s\u00a0in Victoria and Western Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of<strong>&nbsp;Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts<\/strong>, auditors&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-money-laundering-activity-detected-up-to-february-2021\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Deloitte<\/a>&nbsp;will review almost<strong>&nbsp;50 bank accounts&nbsp;<\/strong>for evidence of suspicious payments potentially linked to money laundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Perth Now, Deloitte partner Lisa Dobbin said there had been&nbsp;<strong>suspicious transactions potentially linked to money laundering&nbsp;<\/strong>at Crown up&nbsp;<strong>until at least February of this year<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A preliminary report suggested&nbsp;<strong>a large sum of money had been divided across 14 accounts&nbsp;<\/strong>to avoid the AU$10,000 disclosure threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/western-australian-casino-regulator-unskilled-on-money-laundering\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Western Australia\u2019s Royal Commission<\/a>, on the second day of its hearings, Gaming and Wagering Commission board member Barry Sargeant said the regulator lacked policies or procedures for dealing with the risks of criminal activity at Crown Resorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sargeant added<strong>&nbsp;that GWC would rely on the WA Police and the Australian Federal Police<\/strong>&nbsp;activity despite having the power to order investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His testimony comes after the head of the regulator,&nbsp;<strong>Duncan Ord<\/strong>, admitted he had<strong>&nbsp;no formal training in casino regulation&nbsp;<\/strong>before assuming the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Western Australia\u2019s Royal Commission expects to deliver an<strong>\u00a0internal report by June 30\u00a0<\/strong>and a final report by November 14. Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission is expected to report back to the Victorian government<strong>\u00a0by August 1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTRAC is investigating all three casino operators due to potential non-compliance with AML rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"AUSTRAC has initiated investigations into Australia's three primary casino operators\u2014SkyCity, Star Entertainment Group, and Crown Resorts\u2014for alleged non-compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, specifically concerning high-risk customers and ongoing customer due diligence. Concurrently, Crown Resorts faces ongoing Royal Commissions in Victoria and Western Australia, revealing systemic governance failures and suspicious transaction activities.","focusai_entities":"AUSTRAC, SkyCity, Star Entertainment Group, Crown Resorts, Deloitte, Barry Sargeant, Duncan Ord, Gaming and Wagering Commission, WA Police, Australian Federal Police","focusai_location":"Australia, Perth, Sydney, Victoria, Western Australia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Future Regulatory Reforms?","query":"What systemic regulatory reforms are anticipated in Australia's iGaming sector following the findings of these Royal Commissions and AUSTRAC investigations?"},{"label":"Financial Impact Analysis?","query":"What is the projected financial impact on the implicated operators, considering potential fines, remediation costs, and long-term operational restrictions?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[20215,23907,1137,1295],"class_list":["post-18705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-crown-perth","tag-land-based-casino","tag-skycity","tag-star-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18705","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18705"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18741,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18705\/revisions\/18741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}