Sydney has a multi million landmark building nearing completion on its harbourfront and it was built to house a high roller casino. It was scheduled to open next month, but now there is a doubt that it may get the necessary license from the New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority.
This casino is closely related to its counterpart in Melbourne and it, together with the big four Australian banks, have been negligent in applying the laws in place to prevent criminal syndicates from " laundering " their illicit profits.
The problem is that cash in the way of banknotes is disappearing from the commercial world. We pay our bills electronically and our salaries go directly into our bank accounts and even buying a cup of coffee is now reimbursed by a tap with our mobile phone.
The only time cold, hard cash is required to make a purchase is when we buy illegal drugs, play the poker machines in clubs or pubs, or gamble in a casino. In particular, when the police make a successful drug bust it is not unusual for them to find suitcases crammed with fifty dollar notes.
The profits run to millions and stringent laws are in place to prevent this illegal cash money appearing as having been legitimately earned. One of the favourite ploys is to gamble in a casino. Winnings are withdrawn by a cheque which legitimizes that particular money and the losses are written off as one of the costs of doing business.
This puts the owners of casinos in a delicate position. They want people to spend big at their gambling tables because the odds are always in favour of the casino winning, but it is their responsibility to ensure that the money passing over their tables is legitimate money. In many cases, the gambler is a citizen of another country and possibly a member of its government.
That is why casinos do not allow patrons to gamble with banknotes. They exchange that cash for the casino's inhouse tokens and the casino is obliged to report that cash exchange to the ILGA. All cash transactions above a ten thousand dollar limit fall into that reporting category.
Both this new Sydney casino and its counterpart in Melbourne are aimed at the high roller international market where individual gamblers think nothing of winning or losing a few million dollars at the gambling tables. A lot of this money originally came from China when that country was putting its trading empire in place and graft was rife. The regime is now reigning in its regional leaders and insisting on proper money accountability.
The Australian banks have been fined heavily for their lax control of money laundering and now attention has been turned on Sydney's new casino. It appears that challenges to the board of management may be required before that license is granted and a strict regime to account for the money flow put in place.
Whatever the ILGA decides, gambling will always be the chosen path the crime syndicates take to launder their profits into legitimate money !
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