US Treasury to Apply Extra Scrutiny to High Rollers' Funds
March 29th, 2014 at 4:48:41 PM
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(Reuters) U.S. casinos may soon have to vet where their high rollers' funds come from under a requirement being developed by the U.S. Treasury Department, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move is part of a push to address longstanding regulatory and law enforcement concerns that criminals can use casinos, which have not historically been as closely monitored as banks for compliance with anti-money laundering laws, to convert proceeds of crime into money that appears clean.
Under current law, casinos are required to report suspicious activity. A customer who used a large sum of cash to buy chips, gambled briefly, and then asked to cash out with a casino check, for example, would likely get reported to authorities. But existing rules do not explicitly require casinos to vet the source of gamblers' funds.
The new rule, which is being considered by Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) unit and would make such obligations explicit, is in the early stages and may take a year or more to complete, the people familiar with the proposal said. The rule is likely to require casinos to get more information about certain customers in order to shed light on high-risk transactions such as international wires and large cash deposits, said the sources, who asked not to be named. reuters
Under current law, casinos are required to report suspicious activity. A customer who used a large sum of cash to buy chips, gambled briefly, and then asked to cash out with a casino check, for example, would likely get reported to authorities. But existing rules do not explicitly require casinos to vet the source of gamblers' funds.
The new rule, which is being considered by Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) unit and would make such obligations explicit, is in the early stages and may take a year or more to complete, the people familiar with the proposal said. The rule is likely to require casinos to get more information about certain customers in order to shed light on high-risk transactions such as international wires and large cash deposits, said the sources, who asked not to be named. reuters
March 29th, 2014 at 6:02:17 PM
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The real problem here is that often casinos have looked at a Whale and then taken steps to see that absolutely no one in the casino ever looks more deeply at him or puts anything in writing about him that contradicts the casino's official version of who and what he is. Its a simple way of if no one looks, no one will see anything is amiss therefore we just accept what he has told us and we keep accepting his money. The casino wants plausible deniability of any knowledge of wrong doing, so they can deny they knew their Whale was actually a crook.
It was the old Wall Street Rule of "Know Your Customer" which required diligent inquiry but allowed for less than diligent skepticism about the answers to those inquiries.
It was the old Wall Street Rule of "Know Your Customer" which required diligent inquiry but allowed for less than diligent skepticism about the answers to those inquiries.
