Australia To Impose Stricter Oversight On Casino Gaming Market

Updated On Jun 28, 2021 by Ella McDonald

AustraliaCrown Resorts which is the biggest casino operator in Australia has received a lot of negative publicity in the last 18 months after it came to light that the casino operator had violated multiple gaming laws in different states.

Crown had received negative publicity over the last few years in Australia and overseas for deliberately violating gaming regulations.

Crown pulled out of the Asian market after 19 employees were arrested in China during October 2016 after engaging in marketing activities that promoted gambling in China which is a banned activity.

Crown Resorts was also accused of deliberately breaching gaming regulations in Victoria as whistle blowers told the Australian government that Crown Resorts consistently violated gaming regulations at its flagship Crown Melbourne casino. However, all of these shortcomings were mostly overlooked and Crown Resorts continued to have a free hand in Australia.

Things started to change for Crown Resorts once the New South Wales (NSW) gaming regulator launched an investigation into Crown Resorts. The investigation showed that Crown Resorts had failed to carry out its responsibilities and breached serious regulations that allowed money laundering to take place at its premises.

Gaming regulators in Victoria and Western Australia also launched their own investigations into Crown Resorts and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) which is the financial watchdog in Australia also launched its own independent investigation into Crown Resorts.

What is clear is that Crown Resorts was allowed to breach gaming regulations deliberately and for an extended period of time which is bad for Crown Resorts but also for state gaming regulators in Australia who have not done a proper job in enforcing their responsibilities.

Australia To Impose Stringent Oversight

Austrac has also launched investigations into other casino operators such as Star Entertainment and Skycity Entertainment who have also been accused of breaching compliance at their casino resorts.

The breaches by multiple casino operators show that Australia’s state gaming regulators have not done their job properly and have multiple loopholes that are being exploited by casino operators. Fitch Ratings Inc. released a new report which says that Australia is expected to make significant changes to the way it monitors its gaming market going forward.

No clear cut directive has been released by any of the state gaming regulators as of now. Some of the potential changes that is expected include stringent anti-money laundering procedures, cutting all times to Asian junkets, especially those with ties to the triads and imposing heavy fines for compliance violations.

Ella McDonald Author

Worldwide gambling related news stories are what you will find being written by Ella, she has a keen interest however in UK and European based new stories relating to all gaming environments, and she is always prepared to ask the difficult questions many other journalists avoiding asking those in power.

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