Entain accused of accepting AU$152m from high-risk customers

Gambling and entertainment behemoth Entain faces fresh accusations over having accepted an estimated AU$152m worth of bets from 17 high-risk customers, according to federal court documents cited by The Guardian, and outlined in a new regulatory action published on Monday.

Entain comes under fire in Australia over CTF/AML breaches

The company is facing trouble in Australia where Austrac, the financial intelligence watchdog, has begun civil penalty proceedings against the company on Monday, accusing it of deliberately obscuring the identities of high-risk players and a failure to address what the regulator has called "criminal exploitation."

Entain, which runs sports betting brands Neds and Ladbrokes in the country faces a long list of accusations outlined on the regulator’s website. The company’s board and senior management is said to have failed to exert appropriate oversight over its AML and CTF program, which has failed to identify the high volume of bets accepted from high-risk players.

Entain is also accused of operating its business round-the-clock and allowing people unknown to the business to access the betting platform, including through third-party providers.

This is elaborated further down the list of accusations where Austrac mentions that third parties, such as businesses and individuals, were allowed to accept cash and deposit on behalf of Entain, which further added an actual risk of obscuring the proceeds of crime.

Another matter raised by the regulator is that Entain did not have the appropriate controls to confirm the identity of customers and verify the source of money deposited into certain accounts. The 17 higher risk customers were also explicitly named by the regulator which levelled its accusations against the company.

Court to decide on Entain’s alleged breaches of law

Commenting on this case, Austrac CEO Brendan Thomas said that Austrac’s proceedings were a response to all of the failures that the regulator had detected.

"AUSTRAC’s proceedings allege that Entain did not develop and maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program and failed to identify and assess the risks it faced. We are alleging this left the company at serious risk of criminal exploitation," Thomas explained.

Thomas reminded the online betting sector, and all other businesses that fall under the regulatory purview of Austrac, that they must face AML/CTF benchmarks and take their responsibilities seriously.

Austrac has commenced the civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court and it will be down to the court to determine whether Entain had indeed broken any laws. As to the regulator, the watchdog said that it would refrain from commenting while the matter rests with the court.

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