The Process of Money Laundering in Casinos
A major concern among law enforcements is the process of committing money laundering crime through financial disguise untraceable from illicit origins of funds. To keep law enforcements off a money launderer's track, all monetary funds raised from illegal activities should be converted into a more readily negotiable and manageable money instrument without leaving an audit trail.
The laundered money is typically reintroduced back to the economy with the disguise coming from a legitimate origin in order to prevent suspicions that will lead to tracing the transactions to money laundering back from its illegal source.
Casino establishments are highly vulnerable for money laundering due to the financial structures of its business. Money laundering in the casino does not necessarily takes the form of currency transactions but may also take money instruments forms such as credit cards and wire transfer. Suspicious transaction of this form usually comes from an initial placement of the laundered money from another financial establishment or may have been transferred from series of financial institutions to a casino.
The financial transactions of the unsuspected money laundering disguise to the casino are made by another agent that deviate the authorities from the real identity of the criminals involved with money laundering. These agents are even willing to lose small bets in the form of chips or they may offset larger bets to which they exchange the chips into a currency form, wire transfer or a check.
Another means of disguising money laundering in a casino is through using an anonymous individual using false identification to layer the source of their transactions in large amounts of funds through structuring by creating multiple accounts and transactions in the casino to avoid tracing money laundering transactions from taking place in the casino.
Because of the vulnerability of casino establishments to money laundering, casino officials are placed in a unique position for detecting the occurrence of suspicious activities of money laundering. Suspicion is usually initiated when a financial transaction seems to appear without any legitimate purpose or when it is presented with an unusual type of casino player or when the transactions taking place are inconsistent with wagering transactions carried out in a casino. These occurrences usually occur in casino gaming tables, casino cage and slot machines.
Any suspicious activities particularly concerning financial transactions that are taking place in a casino should be reported to the casino management who in turn has the obligation to report their suspicions to the law enforcement bodies for investigation.
Being prone as a front to illegal activities such as money laundering without any direct participation of the casino management, all means to protect the credibility of the casino establishment should be observed. This is through keen observation by all casino personnel in eyeing suspicious financial transactions beyond the usual expected process that takes place within their casino establishment.
