Entain CEO Gavin Isaacs says the company takes “extremely seriously” allegations from Australia’s financial watchdog of “serious and systemic” non-compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.
After opening an investigation in September 2022, on Monday Austrac began civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against the Ladbrokes owner.
The body claims Entain’s board did not have “appropriate oversight” of its AML/CTF program, which “limited its ability to identify the ML/TF risks it faced and its vulnerability to criminal exploitation.”
Among the allegations are that the operator group did not conduct checks on 17 higher-risk customers, the activity of whom prompted the risk that its online betting sites were being exploited by criminals.
Entain “deliberately obscured” the identity of some high-risk customers through the use of pseudonyms to protect their privacy, Austrac also claims.
The claims against Entain are Austrac’s first civil penalty proceedings against an online gaming company.
“The online betting sector, and all other businesses regulated by Austrac, must take their AML/CTF obligations seriously,” said Austrac CEO Brendan Thomas.
“This includes ensuring they have appropriate procedures to know who their customer is, even when they rely on third parties to process transactions.”
Entain said it is “carefully considering” the allegations, which will now be ruled upon by the Federal Court of Australia.
It said it has “fully cooperated” with the body and introduced enhancements to its AML/CTF systems in December 2022 after the investigation commenced.
Entain CEO Isaacs said: “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.
“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.”
