Casino's Vulnerability to Money Laundering
Casino is a fast paced growing financial industry that earns billions of dollars of gross income annually. Casino is in fact a very luxurious business with luxurious return of income annually. Casino games cover about 82 percent of the all the total wagered money involved from different gaming activities throughout the United States. Remarkably, casino business is a money machine that can earn millions of dollars a day from an estimated of 125 million casino players visiting a licensed casino establishment every day to participate in wagering from numerous casino games.
Because casino is potentially a good business with rapid income stream, more casinos are established worldwide. This increased proliferation of casino establishments along with the fast paced environment casinos create for wagering big amount of money each day makes casinos vulnerable to money laundering.
The large volumes of currency brought into the casino serve as an excellent front for criminals to launder big amounts of money in different currency that are in their possession. Law enforcers implied that the gambling activity in a casino creates an attractive environment for narcotic trafficking, fraud, money laundering and illicit activities to take place.
For money laundering to become less obvious, a launderer needs to cover up the large amounts of money that is in their possession. They will need a legitimate explanation of such wealth and the most obvious recourse is to integrate their wealth through purchasing other assets such as real estates, businesses, jewelries, stock ownership and buying automobiles. In this way, their huge wealth is less obvious and at this stage it is difficult to trace illegal funds being used because of guising it into normal earnings from a business. Launderers also use agents to represent their business to make their identity less transparent.
In response to the increasing money laundering operation using casino as a disguise for an illicit activity, the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 which requires all financial domestic establishments to comply with the government rules against using anonymous financial transactions was extended to apply to all casino establishments. All casinos are mandated to disclose all currency transactions to the Department of Treasury exceeding $10,000. All casino players are required to present identification for verification requirements. This is to maintain a proper and efficient record keeping and auditing trail to all financial activities occurring in a casino.
Additionally, the approval of the Wire Act against online casino strengthens the government's thrusts of eradicating money laundering in the U.S. However, the scope of its jurisdiction on legality issues concerning online casino is not well refined and this does not stop the growth of offshore online casinos in which to American's delight they can participate playing casino games at their own risk.