It’s a year that has seen troubled Entain make significant moves back to respectability but in the immortal words of Michael Corleone in The Godfather movie: “Just as I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”
The UK gambling giant is once again facing serious money laundering charges, it was reported today.
This time Down Under, through its Entain Australia vertical.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) financial crimes regulator has launched legal proceedings against Entain’s Ladbrokes and other iGaming brands.
Entain, which has been wracked with corporate crisis this year, following the payout of a massive £585 million (US$740.44m) fine over historic financial money crimes in Turkey, the defenestration of its CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen, who was originally brought-in to clean up the mess, and a run of poor financial quarters, hoped it had overcome the turbulence with the appointment of a new leadership team of Chair Stella David, replacing Barry Gibson, and latest CEO Gavin Isaacs.
Firing Squad
But once again the Omnichannel is facing the embarrassment, if not shame, of a regulatory firing squad.
AUSTRAC first began their Entain probe into alleged money laundering in 2022, centered on claims that Entain, formerly GVC Holdings, has significant Anti Money-Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) programme failings.
Entain’s vulnerable AML and CTF protocols allowed identity verification breaches and “systematically failed” to check potential financial wrongdoing on their online gambling platforms, said AUSTRAC in a statement.
“The online betting sector, and all other businesses regulated by AUSTRAC, must take their AML/CTF obligations seriously,” the regulator asserted.
“This includes ensuring they have appropriate procedures to know who their customer is, even when they rely on third parties to process transactions.”
Entain–also owners of U.S. joint-venture BetMGM, bwin, Coral, PartyPoker and Sportingbet–has reacted to their latest Compliance set-back with alacrity.
“We have co-operated fully with AUSTRAC throughout its investigation and we are implementing further enhancements to Entain Australia’s AML and CTF compliance arrangements.
“Whilst we still have some further improvements to make, we expect these to be implemented in line with the plan we communicated to AUSTRAC in 2023.
Financial Crime
“We are committed to keeping financial crime out of gambling and continue to play our part in supporting a well-regulated and compliant sector for our customers, stakeholders and the wider community.
“Entain will make such further announcements in relation to this matter as required.”
The share value of the FTSE-100 gambling Omnichannel had fallen by near-6.5 percent to 762.40 GBX by mid-day trading today.
Fines for violating Australia’s AML/CTF laws can be up to AUS$22.2 million (£11.05m/US$13.99m) for each offence.
The ultimate sanction, to be decided by the Federal Court of Australia, “may take some time”, Entain conceded in their statement.
