Monthly Archives: July 2015

Tabcorp money laundering lawsuit; Interpol looking at in-play betting apps

Australian betting operator Tabcorp has been slapped with a civil lawsuit over alleged failures to adhere to anti-money-laundering (AML) protocols.

On Tuesday, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (AUSTRAC) filed a civil suit in Federal Court in Sydney, accusing Tabcorp Holdings Ltd. of failing to take sufficient steps to combat attempts to launder money and failing to exercise proper due diligence on its customers and employees.

AUSTRAC identified nearly 60 examples of Tabcorp staff placing bets on credit, which is not allowed in Australia (except for online betting sites licensed in Australia’s Northern Territory). Tabcorp eventually suspended the staffers and contacted the police but failed to notify AUSTRAC.

The suit also notes a 2010 incident in which Tabcorp contacted police regarding a suspiciously large volume of wagers on a National Rugby League match but again failed to notify AUSTRAC. As well, Tabcorp neglected to inform AUSTRAC of 31 customer accounts that had been set up using bogus credit cards.

Beijing feared Las Vegas Sands was CIA blackmail accomplice

Beijing prevented the establishment of a US consulate in Macau over fears that US intelligence agencies would use the US diplomatic presence to blackmail Chinese public officials.

The claim was revealed in a 2010 document commissioned by the Asian division of casino operator Las Vegas Sands and subsequently obtained by the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley. As reported by The Guardian, Beijing also feared that Sands and its cantankerous owner Sheldon Adelson (pictured) were cooperating with US intelligence agencies’ efforts to dig up dirt on Chinese officials.

According to the Sands China-commissioned document, whose author is unknown, Beijing believed the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Intelligence were “very active” in Macau and had “penetrated and utilized” casinos operating in Macau in gathering intelligence on Chinese officials.

The CIA and FBI agents were believed to be monitoring activity inside the casinos, then “luring and entrapping” Chinese officials suspected of gambling with public money “to force them to cooperate with US government interests.”

Italian police launch crackdown against Malta-based Betuniq operations

Police in Italy have launched a crackdown on Malta-licensed online gambling operator Betuniq as part of an operation targeting an alleged Mafia organization.

On Wednesday, Italian police launched pre-dawn raids on betting operations both within the country and in Malta that police allege have ties to the ‘Ngdrangheta organized crime group. Police said they seized assets worth €2b and issued 41 arrest warrants, including one bearing the name of alleged betting scheme mastermind Mario Gennaro aka Mariolino.

Among the targets of the raids were 1,500 betting shops in Italy, 82 online gambling sites, 45 Italy-based companies and 11 overseas firms, including six in Malta, two each in Romania and Spain, plus one in Austria. Police claimed to have seized “innumerable” property assets during their Wednesday action against an “economic power of gigantic proportions.”

Malta Today reported that the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) had immediately suspended the licenses of the affected Malta-based companies, including Uniq Group Ltd and Betsolution4U Ltd. The Betuniq.eu/it site was still operational several hours after this report but has since gone dark.