Operator News
Australia – AUSTRAC says Australian casinos are ‘well-placed’ to oversee junkets
By Phil - 7 December 2020
Nicole Rose, CEO of Australia’s financial fraud squad AUSTRAC has stated that the responsibility of governing junket operators should remain with individual casinos rather than being passed over to regulators.
Media outlet News Corp reported her comments from a Senator hearing following the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) probe into Crown Resorts.
She said: “AUSTRAC does not regulate junket tour operators. The onus is on industry to ensure it complies with its AML/CTF obligations. The Federal Court has also reiterated this view. Domestic regulation won’t address the issues. The industry is well placed to manage and assess its own risks.”
AUSTRAC said it was launching an official investigation into if Crown Resorts broke anti-money laundering rules with Crown’s Own Chairman, Helen Coonan, recently conceding the company’s ‘ineptitude’ on AML laws.
AUSTRAC’s Regulatory Operations branch said the non-compliance refereed to ‘ongoing customer due diligence, and adopting, maintain and complying with an anti-money laundering/counter terrorism financing program.’
It noted that problems arose ‘in the course of a compliance assessment that commenced in September 2019 and focused on Crown Melbourne’s management of customers identified as high risk and politically exposed persons.’
In June 2017 Austrac in June 2017 contacted Crown claiming that Alvin Chau, the boss of its junket partner SunCity, was a ‘politically-exposed person’ with a ‘substantial’ criminal past.
The ILGA inquiry will rule on Crown’s suitability to hold a NSW casino license for its AU$2.2bn Crown Sydney casino in February.
A 2017 report by AUSTRAC said: “From the casino’s perspective, all the front money comes from the junket tour operator and all the winnings go to the junket tour operator,” the report said. This means that all reporting on these transactions occurs only under the junket tour operator’s name and not the financial activity of the individual participants. This is a significant vulnerability for junket operations. While there was a theoretical acceptance that junkets may be exploited, it was AUSTRAC’s view that this possibility was not taken seriously.”
