A major concern in Australia’s casino market is money laundering. Over the course of the past few years, responsible gambling advocates have become increasingly concerned about casinos being tied to organised crime. To help investigate the issue, Crown Casinos will begin analysing players’ gambling habits.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the casino operator will be taking a close look at the way in which players wager in order to identify suspicious behaviour. Crown Casinos will be looking at a wide range of gambling behaviour, including gambling intensity, duration and frequency. The news of this new initiative comes shortly after a large-scale money laundering scheme was revealed.
Various reports have noted that Pete Tan Hoang, a high roller at Crown Casino, laundered over $1 billion in crime proceeds. The casino operator wants to prevent this from occurring in the future, in order to protect players and the integrity of gambling venues across Australia. In addition to helping identify players who are gambling with crime proceeds, it will also help to identify problem gamblers.
This is a very important aspect of the initiative, as problem gambling has become a major concern in Australia’s gambling market over the course of the past few years. The VCGLR states that the data analysis will be used “as an initial indicator to identify players who may be having problems with their gambling”. A trial of the program will be run for a ‘reasonable period’.
At the moment, little is known about the initiative – such as how exactly the behaviour will be monitored and whether or not third-party will carry out the task.
As these details are revealed, we will keep you updated about Crown Casino’s new player data analysis system.