Uneasy lies the head that wears Crown; IGT’s cautious future

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.