Australia’s Biggest Casino Operator Accused of Breaching Money Laundering Laws

Crown Resorts, Australia’s largest casino operator, is accused of violating money-laundering mandates in a lawsuit filed by the country’s financial watchdog in federal court on Tuesday (March 1).

In a statement of claim filed by the Australian Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), Crown Resorts allegedly committed “innumerable” breaches of anti-money laundering laws (AML) that included allowing casino patrons to gamble using money from cash-filled cardboard boxes.

The watchdog said that the non-compliance by Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth was “longstanding, systemic, and reflective of wholly inadequate oversight by their Boards and senior management. This non-compliance exposed Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth to the  risk of being exploited by organized crime.”

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From March 1, 2016, through Nov. 1, 2020, AUSTRAC said that Crown Resorts failed to maintain their own two-part anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) programs.

“In the absence of an appropriate framework for ML/TF risk oversight, Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth provided designated services through high-risk channels that were not subject to appropriate risk-based controls — including through junket channels, Crown Patron account channels, overseas deposit services, and the Hotel Card Transactions channel,” according to the statement.

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AUSTRAC also pointed to the lack of the casino operators’ oversight as allowing high-risk casino patrons to receive services instead of being questioned about the origin of their wealth.

The statement of claim outlined the alleged questionable behavior of 60 customers that went under the radar by both casinos that involved a turnover in excess of AUD$70 billion in wins and an estimated AUD$1.1 billion in losses.

“ … many engaged in large cash transactions and transacted with cash that appeared suspicious, including cash in plastic bags, shoeboxes or cardboard boxes, cash in rubber bands, small denominations of notes and counterfeit cash,” AUSTRAC wrote.

Another 447 casino patrons reportedly took part in repeated patterns of transactions “consistent with ML/TF typologies.”