NSW, Vic could go separate ways on cash bans at Crown Resorts casinos

As NSW pushes for cash-free casinos to tackle money-laundering, an inquiry hears Victoria could allow cash use by casual gamblers.

Moves to ban cash from casinos are part of attempts to end money-laundering in gaming venues. Picture: AFP

NSW will continue to push to ban cash from its casinos while Victoria may leave the door slightly ajar.

Victoria’s royal commission into Crown Resorts had indicated it may recommend cashless betting only above a threshold of a few thousand dollars.

Last week the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority announced it had reached an agreement with Crown Resorts and rival Star Entertainment Group to gradually move to cashless gaming powered by “card technology linked to identity and a recognised financial institution”, in a bid to stamp out money-laundering risks.

It is understood that the agreement was tentatively intended to apply to all of the company’s casinos in Australia, effectively meaning casino gaming would go completely cashless in NSW, where Crown and Star operate the state’s two casinos, as well as in Western Australia and Victoria, where the sole casinos are operated by Crown.

Crown Resorts has even begun conversations with regulators in WA – where it is also facing a royal commission – and Victoria regarding the issue.

But in a hearing at Victoria’s royal commission into Crown’s suitability to operate its Melbourne Casino, Crown’s group general manager of anti money-laundering (AML) Nick Stokes, who is involved in developing a “digital wallet” for gaming, said it could be used effectively for AML purposes without completely banning cash.

“I think from an AML perspective it would help us considerably, being able to track all transactions above a certain threshold,” Mr Stokes told commissioner Raymond Finkelstein when asked about NSW’s push for cash-free gaming.

“So let’s say the cashless product was set at one or two thousand, if you are able to track all those through the monitoring process. and create rules as we have today over that data, it would give us a significantly critical picture of where risk may manifest itself.”

Crown’s Melbourne casino. Picture: David Crosling

Mr Finkelstein said the digital wallet would have the benefit of reducing “the attractiveness of a casino as a money-laundering institution” and asked whether “as a matter of practicality” a threshold below which cash could be used was “reasonable.”

“That’s my thought – somebody at the local restaurant wants to come in and have a game, has a few hundred dollars, so you wouldn’t want to encatch those people, stop those people,” Mr Finkelstein said to Mr Stokes.

“No,” Mr Stokes replied.

“Because they may not feel they have the inclination to line up and join a program and apply for a card, they may not want to have their play tracked – not for any other nefarious reasons, but just because.”

The Australian understands that the ILGA currently will not consider implementing a similar threshold for Star or Crown, but realises its authority is limited to NSW, while the Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Authority has ultimate jurisdiction over Crown Melbourne.

Crown’s agreement with ILGA to eventually introduce cashless gaming was just one of many reform efforts made after the NSW Bergin inquiry found the company temporarily unsuitable to operate its $2.2bn Sydney casino, primarily over money-laundering fears.

Earlier on Friday Mr Stokes was asked about an interview he conducted in 2020 with a director of Deloitte’s risk advisory business, Murray Lawson, as part of a review of Crown’s risk framework.

Mr Stokes said he “likely” portrayed the opinion to Dr Lawson that Crown formally had a cultural resistance to change and he “may have believed” that the problem was rooted in a focus on wealth over risk management, but it didn’t apply to the company now.

On Thursday Dr Lawson told the commission that Crown’s risk management in regards to junkets was behind industry standards, but it had agreed to implement the changes his review put forward.

The commission will resume on Monday to further discuss Crown’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance measures.

It will hear from a number of external advisers Crown employed to review its process including Katherine Shamai of Grant Thornton Australia, Neil Jeans from Initialism and Deloitte’s Lisa Dobbin.