{"id":24969,"date":"2021-11-29T09:33:30","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T12:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=24969"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:25:37","slug":"over-us710m-laundered-through-slot-machines-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/over-us710m-laundered-through-slot-machines-in-australia","title":{"rendered":"Over US$710m laundered through slot machines in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australian media have reported that a criminal group laundered over AU$1bn (US$710m) through poker machines in Australia\u2019s clubs, pubs and casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia.-\u00a0<strong>David Byrne, chief NSW gaming investigator<\/strong>, has revealed that a group laundered over AU$1bn (US$710m) through\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/nsw-may-allow-the-star-sydney-to-add-1000-pokies\">games machines<\/a>\u00a0(known as poker machines). He told The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes that state and federal authorities found 95,000 poker machines in New South Wales had been used to launder illegal cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The investigation involved\u00a0surveillance of <strong>CCTV footage from the Tiger Airport site in central Sydney<\/strong>, which captured a money-laundering syndicate. T<strong>he group had two methods<\/strong>. A small number of people worked on connected gaming machines to find an almost guaranteed jackpot, while another person put banknotes into two poker machines at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David Byrne said his team of investigators detected 140 pubs and clubs and over 130 individual gamblers<strong> who were associated with money laundering <\/strong>in Sydney alone in the first four weeks after the Covid-19 lockdown ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said: &#8220;I don\u2019t think that clubs, where good, family orientated\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/australia-nsw-to-analyse-impact-of-2018-gaming-machine-reforms\">people across NSW<\/a>\u00a0go to have dinner, want patrons to be walking past organised criminals laundering cash. I think, based on what we\u2019re finding, the pokies venues need a wake-up call, definitely.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australian media have reported that a criminal group laundered over AU$1bn (US$710m) through poker machines in Australia\u2019s clubs, pubs and casinos.<\/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":"An investigation led by NSW gaming authorities has uncovered a criminal syndicate that laundered over AU$1bn through poker machines in New South Wales pubs, clubs, and casinos. The sophisticated operation exploited gaming machines, highlighting significant vulnerabilities in existing AML controls and regulatory oversight within the Australian gaming sector.","focusai_entities":"David Byrne, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, 60 Minutes","focusai_location":"Australia, New South Wales, Sydney","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"AML Framework Review","query":"What specific enhancements to AML governance frameworks and B2C licensing conditions are regulators in New South Wales considering to prevent future large-scale financial crime via gaming machines?"},{"label":"Operator Liability","query":"What is the potential financial and reputational liability for the implicated pubs, clubs, and casinos, and what immediate operational changes are mandated to restore regulatory compliance?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439,158],"tags":[229,23911],"class_list":["post-24969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969","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=24969"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24988,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969\/revisions\/24988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}