New laws widening the scope of current legislation on money laundering and the financing of terrorist activity are currently before the New Zealand Parliament and similar moves are expected in Australia.
The new legislation takes in sectors that were previously exempt. Both Australia and New Zealand have previously passed laws requiring banks and non-bank financial institutions, including casinos, to comply with laws intended to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Known as AML/CFT laws these are now common in Western aligned Asian/Pacific countries following international agreements reached in the early 2000s.
The second round of legislation takes in sports betting, including racing.
New Zealand’s Minister of Justice Amy Adams said: “By extending the (current) Act to lawyers, conveyancers, accountants, real estate agents, sports and racing betting, and businesses that deal in certain high-value goods, we can better prevent and detect money laundering and reduce the impact on victims and the wider...
This Dossier results from the “Life After POGOs” editorial project by Asia Gaming Brief which culminated with a pop-up digital forum on 9th December to discuss potentials ramifications in the industry.
Covid-19 forced the rapid and unexpected closure of venues across Australia, changing the operating environment with unprecedented speed and leaving managers scrambling to adapt...
The US Department of Labor has filed a notice with the US District Court for the NMI informing the court of Imperial Pacific International’s failure to comply with a court judgement that dates back to 2019. According to the notice, IPI cannot continue to disregard the federal court judgment, its employees, and the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA.
Thailand is taking tough measures to fight online gambling by warning internet service providers and cellphone operators of legal action if they fail to block access to gambling websites.
On 3 April 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs of Singapore (MHA) announced that it will be reconstituting the Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) to establish the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) by 2021. The GRA will have an expanded mandate to regulate the entire gambling landscape in Singapore and aims to consolidate and optimize gambling regulatory resources within a single agency.
Over the years, many of the answers have been remarkably prescient in their forecasts for the near-term direction of Asia’s gaming industry. However, we can safely say that no one came anywhere close to guessing
what 2020 may have had in store.
While nowhere in the world has escaped the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, Macau has been hit harder than most, with forecasts for gross domestic product to shrink more than 50 percent this year.
Before the Covid-19 crisis, tourism in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region was at a record high, on track to welcome 80 million visitors in 2019, generating some $90 billion in revenue.
