Australia’s financial intelligence agency warns gambling sector needs to raise standards

Austrac, the financial intelligence agency in Australia, has stated that the country’s gambling industry is on its radar and needs to do more to raise its standards.

As reported by The Guardian, Nicole Rose, who is the head of Austrac, made the remarks as she warned law enforcement agencies to conduct more money laundering prosecutions, otherwise the country could be targeted by international regulators.

Speaking at a conference organised by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACMAS), Rose said Australia was running the risk of being placed on the Financial Action Task Force’s so-called grey list.

This is the Paris-based dirty money watchdog’s list of jurisdictions with deficiencies when it comes to anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism. It includes the likes of Syria, South Sudan and Panama.

Rose said that prosecuting those who commit offences will be the yardstick as to how FATF will assess how the country is combating money laundering. Australia is set to be evaluated by the FATF in 2025.

Rose stated that persuading Australian chief executives and board members to take money laundering seriously has been “a hard journey” and that she had been on an “action-packed journey over the past five or so years”.

“When I started at Austrac, just over four and a half years ago, I was quite perplexed by the blank expressions I received in response to raising the devastating causes and impacts of money laundering on our community,” she said.

“At that time, Austrac had just settled a record $45m penalty with Tabcorp and I thought avoiding this sort of outcome would be an absolute priority for discussion in Australian boardrooms. Of course, as we know now, that has taken some time to transpire,” Rose added.

The last time Australia was assessed was back in 2016, and at that time, the country did not fare too well and may face difficulties this time due to a lack of governmental change.

David Shannon, who oversees the mutual evaluation body for the multilateral body the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, which aids in Australia’s evaluations, warned that Australia might encounter issues in the upcoming phase.

At the ACMAS conference, Shannon said: “Australia won’t get any free rides.”

Greylisting can be detrimental to an economy, as was found by the igaming hub of Malta when it was greylisted last year.

The International Monetary Fund says the average hit to GDP from being added to the list is 7.6%.

Malta was removed from the list on 17 June, which was a huge relief for the Maltese government and businesses based on or operating from the island.

Shannon added: “There is a significant risk for FATF members of going on that list. We can see that there has been blowback on countries that have been found to have failed to meet standards that have been in place for a long time,” Shannon concluded.

At the same time as Malta being removed from the grey list, FATF greylisted Europe’s other igaming hub, Gibraltar.