Ash Mcpherson's blog : Crown Casino Fails to Fix Money Laundering Risks and Criminal Suspects, Documents Show

The Victorian Gambling and Liquor Control Commission's review of casino licensing, announced last year, made 20 recommendations to clean up casinos, nine of which were to be implemented by July 1 this year.

They included that the Crown upgrade its risk management system, use facial recognition systems at all casino entrances, conduct a "robust review" to address money laundering risks, and implement a policy to keep people charged with serious crimes out of the establishment. The report included the following.

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The Crown made submissions to the VCGLR on each recommendation, but according to documents provided to The Guardian by the regulator's chairman, Ross Kennedy, the Crown has yet to acknowledge that the gaming group has fully implemented its recommendations on 10 recommendations, including nine that were to be completed by July 1. The Crown has not yet found that the Gaming Group has fully implemented its recommendations.

The remaining recommendation still under consideration by the Commission (that Crown conduct a staff briefing on the regulations) is to be implemented annually.

Since Saturday, Crown has been swept up in a series of allegations released by the Nine Group and statements made in Parliament by independent MP Andrew Wilkie related to organized crime and money laundering.

The Morrison administration and opposition parties have resisted a parliamentary inquiry, but on Tuesday Attorney General Christian Porter referred allegations to the Australian Law Enforcement Integrity Commission that Crown high rollers received special treatment at the border and were allowed to enter the country in the company's private jet without being checked The company has referred the allegations to the Australian Law Enforcement Integrity Commission.

On Wednesday evening, The Age reported that the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission will conduct a special investigation into organized crime in Australian casinos like casinosclub.at.

The ACIC's special investigation targeting the criminally wealthy will reportedly look into the operations of agents known as junkets, who are usually responsible for bringing high roller customers from offshore to the casinos.

ACIC Director Michael Phelan said, "The infrastructure supporting junket operations is ...... provide an opportunity to be exploited by serious organized crime to conceal and legitimize criminal wealth," he reportedly said.

Phelan did not disclose which businesses he was investigating.

Crown fired back with a newspaper ad signed by all of its directors, accusing Nine's reporting of a "deceptive campaign" that "attempted to unfairly damage Crown's reputation."

The Crown board, led by John Alexander and including former Howard government minister Helen Coonan, complained of "poor and misleading journalism," distanced itself from junket operators who bring high rollers from Asia to Australian casinos, and called for money laundering It defended its track record of combating money laundering, denying that it knew of any staff members convicted of promoting illegal gambling in China who had broken the law. Wilkie claimed that the investigation was intentionally delayed to help the reelection of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, and former state gaming minister Tony Robinson told the Guardian that more needs to be done to combat the threat posed by casinos.

In a 2017 report, Victoria's auditor general also accused the VCGLR of "failing to pay sufficient attention to key risk areas in the operation of casinos, including detection of people excluded by the Victoria Police, responsible gambling, and money laundering," and said that until recently the venue He stated that until recently, the state did not have a team dedicated to this venue.

Regulators, including the VCGLR, have also been accused of failing to properly oversee Crown's Melbourne operations.

In his initial remarks on the Crown crisis, however, Kennedy defended Crown's performance. Kennedy said the Auditor General is currently conducting a follow-up review that will be presented to Congress in November.

He said, "I am confident that VCGLR's governance and audit processes, as well as its performance management and reporting, will enable its staff to fulfill their regulatory responsibilities with the highest level of integrity, professionalism, and professionalism.

You will see from the (Victorian) budget proposal that the VCGLR has also established a dedicated casino team, revised its audit program to focus on higher risk areas, and introduced new reporting metrics for the government's regulatory oversight of the VCGLR's casino operations."

According to Kennedy, the VCGLR did not do enough to combat the risk of corruption through bribe-taking by its board members, following a report last year by the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission.

'We have examined the report closely and have confirmed that our prevention and detection strategies are in line with the guidance set out in the report.

Victorian law requires the VCGLR to conduct a full review of the Crown's Melbourne license every five years.

The latest review, completed last June, was the most in-depth look at Crown's operations in VCGLR's 25-year history, but it failed to appease critics like Robinson who see the regulator as inefficient.

It also left unfinished an investigation into the arrest and conviction of 19 Crown staff in China for promoting illegal gambling.

Crown was asked to complete two of the 20 recommendations made in the review by January 1: to "fully involve" Crown's independent directors in the oversight of the Melbourne casinos and to review the qualifications of the chair.

VCGLR is satisfied that Crown is meeting these recommendations.

Another eight, including a requirement to use data analysis to identify problem gamblers, are due later this year or are not due.

This leaves Crown with 10 recommendations that have not fully satisfied the VCGLR.

Crown to reassess and upgrade its risk systems where necessary, "conduct a robust review of internal controls" to ensure that the compliance department knows about projects that may require regulatory approval, and ban access to casinos was given a July 1 deadline to "conduct a comprehensive review of its policies regarding the creation and revocation of voluntary exclusion orders" that would allow the

By the same date, they were also to develop a policy allowing "family and friends" to bar problem gamblers, install new responsible gambling signs, develop a new responsible gambling policy, and expand facial recognition technology to cover all entrances to casinos. The same deadline applies to two key recommendations related to law enforcement. Namely, that the Crown, with input from the financial intelligence agency Austrac, "conduct a robust review to ensure that anti-money laundering risks are being adequately addressed," and that the Crown "implement a policy of issuing exclusion orders when a person has engaged in serious unacceptable conduct at a casino or is subject to serious criminal charges, or . and implement a policy of issuing cease and desist orders when any person has been subject to serious unacceptable conduct or serious criminal charges at a casino"; and

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