High rollers are gamblers that spend millions of dollars at local casinos, and local gambling operators enjoy their patronage. However, the Department of Internal Affairs is not as pleased, believing that there is the possibility that money laundering and other crimes are taking place in local casinos.
The DIA has noticed a trend, which sees Asian gamblers spending very little time in New Zealand while gambling millions of dollars. While there is no proof that their activities are illegal, the authorities still believe that the activities need to be investigated.
“You have to stress that you don’t know if there was money laundering,” says the DIA’s Maarten Quivooy. “But, I think we need to get a little smarter about understanding these patterns of casino use and ensuring they are appropriate.”
Recently, New Zealand and Australian casinos have become the target of various types of fraud – from cashing bad cheques at the local casino to seeing gamblers spending stolen money. So, it is not entirely out of the question that money laundering is taking place. The team will spend the next few months investigating high roller transactions at local New Zealand casinos, and the results are sure to be very interesting.
