{"id":25571,"date":"2021-12-15T07:53:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T10:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=25571"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:55:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:55:48","slug":"ilga-calls-for-probe-into-money-laundering-via-slot-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ilga-calls-for-probe-into-money-laundering-via-slot-machines","title":{"rendered":"ILGA calls for probe into money laundering via slot machines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Philip Crawford, ILGA’s chairman, has called for an investigation into money laundering using slot machines in NSW pubs and clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- After revelations that\u00a0a criminal group laundered over AU$1bn (US$710m)<\/a>\u00a0through pokies in Australia\u2019s clubs, pubs and casinos, Philip Crawford, ILGA’s chairman has said a public inquiry is needed. Crawford has sent a letter to the NSW government saying that gambling activities at clubs and bars in the state should be subject to the same kind of public investigation as Crown Resorts\u2019 activities in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chairman of ILGA also expressed his dissatisfaction with the current law, which makes him responsible for the oversight of illegal actions in casinos while preventing him from doing the same to non-gaming establishments.\u00a0He said the New South Wales Government should be given more powers and initiate supervision of non-gaming businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crawford said there was a legislative gap that distinguishes the state government’s gambling regulation of large casinos with thousands of slot machines from the regulation of non-gaming establishments, which operate 95,000 slot machines across the state.\u00a0He said criminal organizations were using the gap to carry out money laundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Byrne<\/strong>, chief NSW gaming investigator, said his team of investigators detected 140 pubs and clubs and over 130 individual gamblers\u00a0who were associated with money laundering\u00a0<\/strong>in Sydney alone in the first four weeks after the Covid-19 lockdown ended. It was reported that\u00a0ten pokies venues in Sydney<\/a>\u00a0accounted for around 40 per cent of a suspected AU$6m money laundering operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philip Crawford, ILGA’s chairman, has called for an investigation into money laundering using slot machines in NSW pubs and clubs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"ILGA Chairman Philip Crawford has called for a public inquiry into money laundering via slot machines in New South Wales pubs and clubs, citing a legislative gap that exempts these venues from the stringent oversight applied to casinos. This follows revelations of a criminal group laundering over AU$1bn through pokies, with investigators identifying numerous venues and individuals involved in Sydney alone.","focusai_entities":"Philip Crawford, ILGA, Crown Resorts, David Byrne","focusai_location":"Australia, New South Wales, Sydney","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on NSW Operators?","query":"What are the projected financial and operational impacts for NSW pubs and clubs if the proposed regulatory oversight and AML compliance requirements are extended to non-gaming establishments?"},{"label":"Legislative Reform Timeline?","query":"What is the anticipated timeline for the New South Wales Government to address the identified legislative gap and implement enhanced regulatory frameworks for non-casino gaming venues?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439,158],"tags":[229,23911,23728],"class_list":["post-25571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-ilga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25571","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=25571"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25610,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25571\/revisions\/25610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}