Australia’s financial crimes watchdog launches an investigation into Entain, a British company.
The Australian agency in charge of fighting financial crimes said it had started looking into the British sports betting giant Entain Plc to see if it was following anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) said it started the enforcement investigation after a large-scale monitoring campaign that covered the entire corporate bookmaking sector, but it didn’t give any more details.
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AUSTRAC’s Chief Executive Officer Nicole Rose said in a statement on Monday, “Reporting entities have a responsibility to make sure they identify, assess, and manage risks of money laundering and terrorism financing, develop adequate processes, and put in the resources they need to meet their AML/CTF obligations.”
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when physical gambling shops were shut down in fits and starts for almost two years, online betting has exploded in Australia.
Entain, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, has about one-sixth of Australia’s online betting market through the Ladbrokes (LON:LCL) brand. Its larger competitor, Flutter Entertainment Plc, which is Australia’s largest online betting house and has Sportsbet, also reported big increases in revenue in 2020 and 2021.
Last month, the British gambling regulator fined Entain 17 million pounds ($19 million), its largest fine, for what it called “completely unacceptable anti-money laundering and safer gambling failures.”
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Entain made an offer in 2021 to buy some assets from Australia’s No. 2 online betting company, Tabcorp Holdings Ltd, but did not answer two emails from Reuters asking for comment. A spokesperson for Entain told The Australian Financial Review that the company was helping with the investigation.
