{"id":777015633,"date":"2024-05-20T09:05:32","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T12:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777015633"},"modified":"2026-04-22T10:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:06:12","slug":"skycity-adelaide-agrees-to-penalty-for-aml-breaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/skycity-adelaide-agrees-to-penalty-for-aml-breaches","title":{"rendered":"SkyCity Adelaide agrees to penalty for AML breaches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The casino operator reached a joint decision with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- SkyCity Adelaide<\/strong> and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC)<\/strong> have jointly submitted a proposed AU$67m (US$44.5m) penalty<\/strong> to the Federal Court of Australia to address the\u00a0casino’s\u00a0breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML\/CTF Act).\u00a0A court hearing\u00a0is scheduled\u00a0for June 7 to review the proposed settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTRAC\u00a0initiated Federal Court action against SkyCity<\/a>\u00a0Adelaide in December 2022, alleging systematic non-compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. According to the regulator, the casino permitted 59 high-risk customers to gamble more than AU$4bn in suspect cash. SkyCity admitted that it operated in contravention of the AML\/CTF Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTRAC\u2019s chief executive officer, Brendan Thomas<\/strong>, said: “AUSTRAC took this action out of concern that SkyCity\u2019s conduct meant that a range of high-risk practices, behaviours and customer relationships were allowed to continue unchecked for many years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate press release, SkyCity\u2019s executive chairman, Julian Cook<\/strong>, said: \u201cWe acknowledge that, as a casino operator, we play a key role in combating money laundering and terrorism financing and safeguarding the community against these risks. While we take this responsibility seriously, we accept we have failed to live up to the standard required of us and for this, on behalf of the SkyCity and SkyCity Adelaide Boards and management teams, I apologize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know we need to do better to meet the expectations of our regulators, customers and our shareholders, and this is a process that is already under way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: <\/strong>SkyCity appoints Jason Walbridge as chief executive officer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company highlighted changes, including\u00a0the appointment of\u00a0an independent expert to\u00a0conduct a review of\u00a0its AML\/CTF program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cook\u00a0said: \u201cOur enhancement activities remain ongoing\u00a0and\u00a0we have further important work to do in New Zealand and Australia\u00a0which\u00a0will take time to complete.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The casino operator reached a joint decision with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"SkyCity Adelaide and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) have jointly proposed an AU$67m penalty to the Federal Court of Australia for systemic breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act. The casino admitted to non-compliance, allowing high-risk customers to gamble over AU$4bn in suspect cash. SkyCity acknowledges its failures and is implementing remediation, including an independent review of its AML\/CTF program.","focusai_entities":"SkyCity Adelaide, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), Federal Court of Australia, SkyCity, Brendan Thomas, Julian Cook, Jason Walbridge","focusai_location":"Australia, New Zealand, Adelaide","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":"Impact on SkyCity Valuation","query":"What is the projected impact of this AU$67m penalty and ongoing compliance remediation costs on SkyCity's EBITDA, NGR, and overall market valuation, particularly considering its operations in New Zealand?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent Analysis","query":"How might this AUSTRAC enforcement action against SkyCity Adelaide influence the regulatory scrutiny and compliance expectations for other licensed casino operators within the APAC region, specifically regarding high-risk customer management and AML\/CTF governance frameworks?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[23793,24411],"class_list":["post-777015633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-austrac","tag-skycity-entertainment-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777015633","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=777015633"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777015633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777016002,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777015633\/revisions\/777016002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777015633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777015633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777015633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}