{"id":777029665,"date":"2025-07-30T08:11:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T11:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777029665"},"modified":"2026-04-21T20:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T23:33:20","slug":"austrac-launches-civil-penalty-proceedings-against-mounties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/austrac-launches-civil-penalty-proceedings-against-mounties","title":{"rendered":"AUSTRAC launches civil penalty proceedings against Mounties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Allegations include systemic non-compliance with AML\/CTF laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has announced that it has launched civil penalty proceedings against Mount Pritchard District and Community Club (Mounties)<\/strong>, for alleged non-compliance with Australia\u2019s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML\/CTF)<\/strong> laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mounties operates 1,400 gaming machines <\/strong>at ten venues. According to AUSTRAC, it contravened the AML\/CTF Act by failing to adopt and maintain an compliant AML CTF programme. AUSTRAC says Mounties\u2019 programme lacked adequate risk assessments and did not include appropriate staff training. It was also not subject to an independent review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brendan Thomas<\/strong>, AUSTRAC CEO, said: \u201cMounties is one of the largest and most profitable club groups in NSW. It owns 10 venues, eight of which operate approximately 1,400 poker machines, and it makes hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from money gambled on those machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is a big company with an even bigger responsibility to ensure its clubs are managing the risks that criminals can run dirty money through its gaming machines. AUSTRAC\u2019s 2024 Money Laundering in Australia National Risk Assessment identified pubs and clubs as a medium risk sector, but when those businesses are exposed to cash, especially in circumstances where known money laundering risks are not being managed, the risk increases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cA business operating at this scale, in a cash-intensive sector, is exposed to a high degree of money laundering risk. In 2022 for example, the NSW Crime Commission released its Project Islington report which determined that billions of the approximately AU$95bn(US$63.7bn)<\/strong>\u00a0gambled in NSW poker machines in 2021-22 was likely to be dirty money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The matter has been referred to the Federal Court<\/strong>. Court documents will be made available through AUSTRAC\u2019s enforcement actions page once published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Investor sues former SkyCity executives over US$44m AML penalty<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allegations include systemic non-compliance with AML\/CTF laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":777019844,"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 civil penalty proceedings against Mount Pritchard District and Community Club (Mounties) for alleged systemic non-compliance with Australia's AML\/CTF laws. Mounties, a significant operator of 1,400 gaming machines across ten venues, is accused of failing to implement and maintain an adequate AML\/CTF program, lacking proper risk assessments, staff training, and independent review. This action underscores the heightened regulatory scrutiny on cash-intensive gaming sectors and the substantial risks associated with money laundering.","focusai_entities":"Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), Mount Pritchard District and Community Club (Mounties), Brendan Thomas, NSW Crime Commission, SkyCity","focusai_location":"Australia, NSW","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 (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Mounties' financial impact?","query":"What is the estimated financial impact of these civil penalty proceedings on Mounties' operational profitability and shareholder value, considering potential fines and remediation costs?"},{"label":"Regulatory framework evolution?","query":"How might this enforcement action by AUSTRAC influence the evolution of AML\/CTF regulatory frameworks and compliance expectations for other land-based and online gaming operators in Australia?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[23793,289],"class_list":["post-777029665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-austrac","tag-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777029665","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\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777029665"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777029665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777029704,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777029665\/revisions\/777029704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777019844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777029665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777029665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777029665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}