UK bet365 Down Under Investigation for AML Breaches
Britain’s storied iGaming goliath bet365–the richest privately-owned betting company in the world, owned by Denise Coates, one of the richest women in the world–is under investigation in Australia for possible breaches of anti-money laundering Compliance laws.
Today’s breaking news has hit the British gambling industry like a bombshell.
Bet365–founded by Coates and her brother John in 2000 and built on a modest high street betting shop chain in Stoke-on-Trent in the British Midlands inherited from their father, Peter–is arguably, with Ladbrokes and William Hill, among this nation’s best known gambling brand.
Last year Denise Coates, CBE, aged 56, earned almost £300 million (US$382.78m) in pay and dividends.
According to US business ‘bible’ Forbes magazine, Coates, a mother-of-five, (pictured left) is worth over £6 billion (US$7.65bn).
Bet365 is the latest gambling firm to be probed by Australian financial investigative attack dogs.
As previously reported in these pages, Australia’s biggest gambling group, Crown Resorts, which runs premium casino resorts and hotels in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, among a plethora of other gaming interests, has been under repeated investigation from state and federal authorities for breaches of gambling laws and Compliance protocols.
Brought to its knees by a series of multi-million Australian dollar fines, Crown–and its principal shareholder, the controversial media baron James Packer–was bought by the US private equity firm Blackstone for AUS$8.9 billion (US$5.87bn/£4.6bn) in February 2022.
It was simultaneously de-listed from the Australian Securities Exchange.
In keeping with her noted media strategy of never speaking to the press, Ms. Coates has maintained silence on the AML probe into its Hillside (Australia New Media) vertical.
Enforcement
AUSTRAC–the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre–confirmed it was launching an “enforcement investigation” into Hillside/bet365’s operations in the country.
“The investigation will focus on whether bet365 has complied with its obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act),” AUSTRAC affirmed in a statement, released today (March 7).
“[It] follows a supervisory campaign of entities within the corporate bookmaker sector and AUSTRAC’s consideration of the external audit report received following AUSTRAC’s order to bet365 to appoint an external auditor.
“Corporate bookmakers must have robust systems in place to ensure they can manage and mitigate risks associated with money laundering and terrorism financing,” said AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas in the statement.
“Businesses without adequate processes in place to manage those risks leave themselves vulnerable to exploitation by criminals.”
The statement continued:
“AUSTRAC has a range of regulatory tools and enforcement powers available to it and will not hesitate to take action where suspected non-compliance is identified.
“As the investigation is ongoing, AUSTRAC is unable to comment any further at this time.”
AUSTRAC has previously investigated Britain’s troubled Entain, which recently jettisoned CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen, over anti-money laundering Compliance issues.
And in 2020 AUSTRAC fined Australian bank Westpac a swingeing AUS$1.3 billion (£673m) for regulatory breaches.
