The casino giant Crown has long been suspected of being involved in money laundering and other criminal acts. So far, the casino has fought against these allegations. Now new knowledge and even confessions became known.
Lack of controls in the casino
Apparently there are security gaps in the casino group Crown which could lead to possible money laundering. At the moment, the focus is on the casino in Melbourne. Large sums of money are said to have been implemented there with the help of a junk operator. This situation is viewed as a suspicion of money laundering. The chairman of the board, Ken Barton, admitted for the first time that a lack of controls could lead to suspicious situations.
In the course of the current investigation, further details came to light: For example, the majority shareholder James Packer is said to have tried to sell a large part of his shares to Ho. The latter is the owner of the Melco group, a Hong Kong-based gaming company. However, exactly such connections are prohibited according to license connections. This includes all contacts between the Crown Group and the former Melco CEO. Such a connection would exist in this case, however, since HO is the son of the former Melco CEO.
Ken Barton claims not to have known about any of this. However, given his behavior over the past few months, this statement can be doubted. In the past few months, Benton had increasingly forwarded internal business information to Packer and not informed the other shareholders about it.
Loss of license as a possible consequence
In the worst case scenario, the new evidence could lead to the Crown Corporation losing its license. If this happens, not only the license for the existing casinos would be in danger. No license would be issued for new casinos either. The planned casino in Barangaroo could not receive a license and could not be opened by this group. Unfortunately the casino is already under construction.
Of course, a casino group’s license is not revoked at first suspicion. This confirms once again that Crown has been accused of dubious deals for years. Various junk operators are said to have accompanied people from China to Australia in order to bet extremely high sums. Years ago it was determined that there was close contact between Jamie Clements and Huang Xiangmo. Clements served for some time as Labor Secretary General in New South Wales and Xiangmo is a wealthy real estate broker from China.
In general, casinos based in Australia are prohibited from maintaining contact with anyone in whose home country casinos are not legally offered. This is exactly what has been the case in recent years. Crown must have worked with several organizations that deliberately recruited people from China and ran casinos in Australia. There are now supposed to be indications that the Australian consulate was also involved.
Casinos that disregard the legal regulations must expect a license withdrawal. And this could now be ahead of the Crown Corporation.
Aussie Millions Poker championship chip could be at stake
The Aussie Millions poker tournament takes place once a year at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. If the license were withdrawn from the casino, this tournament could no longer be offered. The first tournament was held in 1998 with a prize pool of A $ 74,000. Just a few years later, the prize pool was worth more than 2.5 million Australian dollars.
One can only hope that if the license expires, another company will take over the group and continue to offer tournaments.
Online casinos: no chances of money laundering
While on-site casinos are subject to the responsible supervisory authorities, online casinos must independently take care of preventing money laundering. All online casinos are encouraged to develop their own measures to prevent money laundering and further corruption. There is an EU-wide directive for this, which most countries have already implemented into national law.
For example, the casino has to check suspicious deposits. These not only include transfers in crypto currency. Payments with the Paysafe card are also subject to a special check. For this reason, many online casinos require verification if a higher amount of winnings is to be paid out.
All of this leads to the fact that playing roulette or slot machines can be enjoyed. Every player can be sure that all regulations are observed. If a jackpot is won, it can be paid out without any problems. Some casinos reward their customers with free spins or another bonus if they enter a mobile phone number when registering – another security aspect.
