Australian casino operator Crown Resorts is disassociating itself from its former junket partners as the endless stream of negative news emerging from a regulatory inquiry shows no sign of abating.

On Friday, Crown announced that it had “suspended all activity with junket operators until 30 June 2021 while it undertakes a comprehensive review of its processes related to junket operators.”

Trying to calm investors as to the effect this new junket stance will have on operations, Crown said junket-based VIP play at its Melbourne and Perth casinos accounted for around 7% of its earnings over the past five years. Crown added that it’s also searching for someone to fill “the newly created role of Head of Compliance and Financial Crimes.”

Crown’s new anti-junket/pro-compliance stance follows a disastrous appearance by CEO Ken Barton at the New South Wales Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) inquiry into Crown’s suitability to hold a state gaming license. Barton claimed ignorance of a ‘cash desk’ at a Crown Melbourne VIP gaming room run by the Suncity Group junket.  

The seedier users of digital currencies have flown under the radar for quite some time, but governments are starting to get smart to their ways. Oversight is coming all around the world, and Bitcoin SV is ready for it as we’ll find out at CoinGeek Live.

Switzerland, long thought of as a refuge for money you don’t want the world to know about, has joined the regulatory world of crypto currency. That country recently passed the a reformed Blockchain Act, regulating how decentralized finance companies in the country operate. That will make it harder for criminals, who have often used digital currencies to launder their ill-gotten gains, to pass money through the country.

Elsewhere, several law enforcement agencies are cracking down on organized crime’s use of digital currencies. Agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are spending millions to improve their ability to audit and investigation the flow of funds, while the IRS has set up a bounty to crack supposedly “untraceable” assets.

And let’s not forget, the European Union has made it imperative that all of their member states sign on to the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5). This forces business using digital currencies to operate within the law, and make their business partners, and customers, open to scrutiny.

The world may never know all the details of one of the most extensive and intricate casino money-laundering networks ever thought to exist. Canada has been spending an exorbitant amount of time over the past couple of years trying to clean up its casino industry following steady allegations of widespread money-laundering activity going on at the venues, and one of the most notorious individuals tied to much of those operations was Jian Jun Zhu. He is said to have been behind the movement of billions of dollars in illicit money through the casinos, but the 44-year-old met an abrupt end last Friday. While dining at a Japanese restaurant in Richmond, British Columbia, with an associate, he was gunned down and died from the ambush attack.

Like something out of a suspense or mob-themed movie, Jian and the associate, Paul King Jin, were sitting at a table at the Manzo Itamae Japanese Restaurant at Garden City last Friday when the attack occurred. Both men were thought to have been involved in casino money-laundering and were being investigated by the government for their possible roles. However, that investigation, Operation E-Pirate, fell apart due to the mishandling of data and both suspects were let go. 

Jian and Caixuan Qin, his wife, were behind the Silver International casino, the property that was allegedly nothing more than a front for drug cartels looking to legitimize capital. The property would receive the funds, issue credits and vouchers through a network of Chinese banks, and then use the money to give Chinese high rollers credit for gambling. 

The casino, along with certain real estate holdings, is said to have facilitated the transition of dirty money to clean worth about $250 million each year, but everything came to an embarrassing halt when, in November 2018, the personal details of a police informant were “accidentally” released during disclosure as Jian and Qin stood trial, and the judge dismissed the case, fearing that continuing the high-profile trial would put the informant’s life at risk.

Interest in digital currencies is still growing, and while many people already know about Bitcoin, they’re figuring out how it works into their daily lives. At Day 3 of SiGMA America’s, the focus was on all things blockchain technology, and SiGMA’s Jessica Walker spoke with CoinTelegraph’s Head of Research Demelza Hays to see what stories Latam cares most about.

With more people at home in 2020 and a growing interest in digital currencies, CoinTelegraph has had a banner year, but maybe not for the stories you’d expect. “We’ve seen basically a general uptrend and a spike in July.” Hays said. “We actually had a bike spike when there was an article published about the combination of cryptocurrencies and religion. And so that article was about the Book of Revelation according to St. John and basically how cryptocurrencies are basically in line with what the Bible talks about concerning money. This was an article that went viral in Mexico, it had over 1 million views.”

But with so many trying to secure financial security in South America, the usual topics have also done very well. “On a completely separate topic in Brazil, we had an article that had over 1 million views,” Hays said. “That was regarding the Central Bank’s switch to instant payments in Brazil.”

Walker asked what trends Hays has observed in the direction of the industry. With more businesses looking at serious blockchain usage, Hays said the industry is growing up fast. “The industry is maturing so quickly because there’s an audience for [research reports],” she said. “There’s an audience of people that are traditionally from the financial sector, they are used to research reports, and they now want to understand this new asset class within the old glasses, the old framework that they’re used to.”

The discussion around digital currencies has increasingly moved on from what they’re capable of, to what governments will allow them to do. At Latin America considers what regulations should be imposed in the industry, SiGMA America’s Virtual Summit’s Day 3 was all about blockchain developments, and how digital currencies are legislated definitely came up.

Just as with gambling, Latam’s approach to digital currency regulation has been very heterogenous. “Latin America is a very interesting place to be and an interesting region to follow because not every country thinks alike, and it’s a nice way to see how people try different approaches and different solutions to the same issue,” said Jose Antonio Lanz Diaz, Writer and Editor at Decrypt Media. “ Let’s see how they work.”

Unfortunately, as so many scams have entered the industry, either through initial coin offerings (ICOs) in 2017 or through DeFi now, regulation has had to focus on keeping customers safe before all else. Regulation, said Etienne Luquet, CEO of Legal Lab, “has been a solution for just making people safe in their property and their money, because you know a lot of restrictions are in place in some of these countries. At the same time, Latin America has been a great laboratory because you know there are some special circumstances.”

Mexico is a great example of a country trying to come to grips with how to regulate the industry. Unfortunately, exchanges that aren’t focused on providing any real value to customers, but rather in pumping up useless assets, have been very adept at finding loopholes.

With three days full of Bitcoin content, CoinGeek Live is set to deliver loads of the latest information you could want to find about digital currency and blockchain technology. If you’re new to the industry, and you’re not sure what this information could mean to your business, we have a little primer to help ease you in.

On Day 1, make sure to catch the opening remarks from Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen, who always does a great job of spelling out the vision of Bitcoin SV (BSV), and how it can enhance your business. He kicks off the day at 9:05 am EDT.

Immediately following him at 9:25 am EDT is CTO and Technical Director of nChain Steve Shadders, to speak on the latest Technical Updates of Bitcoin SV. There’s a good chance he speaks about how Bitcoin SV has now moved from micro-payments to nano-payments with the Rails update, opening up a new world of possibilities and use cases.

How does BSV achieve nearly instant payments with almost no fees? Better Payments: Improving the Consumer Experience with Bitcoin at 10:25 am EDT will look at how BSV’s infrastructure has been built to massively scale, reduce network congestion, and enable frictionless peer to peer transactions.