Executives at Crown Resorts had better rethink that scheme to buy Sheldon Adelson‘s Las Vegas assets. The company, which has played fast and loose with money-laundering rules, has been provisionally denied permission to open its multibillion-dollar casino in Sydney. Regulators said they were “not comfortable” with giving Crown the go-ahead. It’s an anti-money-laundering lesson that should resound through the casino industry loud and clear. The New South Wales Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority had not much choice but to clamp down on Crown after the latter admitted to AML miscreance, with money improperly channeled through VIP accounts. Imagine having to go before the Nevada Gaming Control Board (and possibly FinCEN) and spin that.
There’s still a ray of hope for Crown. Commissioner Patricia Bergin is preparing a final report, due in February, one that could either let Crown off the hook or slam the door. ILGA Chairman Philip Crawford was shocked—shocked!—that there was money laundering going on at Crown, despite an accumulating pile of evidence. “We had no notice that was being done, I don’t think the Bergin inquiry or counsel assisting were aware of it and it’s come at the eleventh hour, literally—apparently 11 o’clock last night,” he explained somewhat lamely. That’s awfully late for an 11-month probe of Crown. The latter’s subsidiaries, Riverbank and Southbank, accepted less-than-kosher deposits for play at Crown casinos in Perth and Melbourne. The method employed was “cuckoo smurfing”—what we call “structuring”—dismantling large deposits into smaller increments to avoid setting off AML alarms.
At age 86, horse owner Armand Janjigian is as alive and kicking as the thoroughbreds he wants to race in Massachusetts. No, he doesn’t have a track but he’s busily snapping up land for one. He’s also going to need a big lift from the Lege. How come? Well, obviously, horse racing isn’t what it used to be. Janjigian’s solution requires the legalization of sports betting in the Bay State and—you guessed it—
Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg must have dropped some extra-potent LSD before his last investor call. His comments were summarized by one auditor as, “When we get into a Post-COVID world Pent-Up demand you’re going to see for Gaming And … Las Vegas in Particular Is going to be beyond your Wildest Dreams. Unlike anything that’s happened historically in this Space.” That not only puts Reeg not only out on a limb but in the thinly populated lunatic fringe of gaming executives and Wall Street analysts. It also conveniently allows Reeg to write off present-day reality as an aberration. For example, the drawdown of federal economic stimulus seems to be having a parallel effect on regional gaming. Not even two extra weekend days in October could produce impressive results.
