{"id":1497512,"date":"2022-05-31T07:14:49","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T11:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1497512"},"modified":"2022-05-31T07:14:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T11:14:55","slug":"australian-casino-fined-80-million-for-illegal-chinese-money-transfers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/australian-casino-fined-80-million-for-illegal-chinese-money-transfers\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Casino Fined $80 Million for Illegal Chinese Money Transfers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Faustralian-casino-fined-80-million-for-illegal-chinese-money-transfers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1497512&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Victoria\u2019s Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) has fined Crown Melbourne $80 million (US$57.5 million) for organising a scheme that enabled illegal money transfers from China.<\/p>\n<p>The fine was imposed after the VGCCC\u2019s investigation revealed that Crown casino set up a process to circumvent Chinese currency restrictions and allow funds to be transferred out of China illegally, by letting international gamblers use the China Union Pay card from 2012 to 2016.<\/p>\n<p>During that period, the Chinese regime made it illegal for citizens to transfer more than US$50,000 to other countries each year.<\/p>\n<p>The VGCCC said that Crown casino came up with a plan in which it falsely issued hotel room bills to Chinese patrons.<\/p>\n<p>The individuals would then settle the bills with their China Union Pay (CUP) card and receive a voucher acknowledging the receipt of funds.<\/p>\n<p>After that, they would exchange the voucher for cash or chips with the help of a Crown VIP host.<\/p>\n<p>The commission estimated that the scheme processed about $164 million in illegal funds and allowed Crown casino to gain over $32 million in revenue.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4501856\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/05\/31\/GettyImages-1238460910-1200x1800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4501856\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/05\/31\/GettyImages-1238460910-600x900.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> People enter the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, on Feb. 14, 2022. (William West\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>This is the first time the VGCCC has used its new enforcement powers following an amendment to the Casino Control Act, which raised the maximum allowable fine from $1 million to $100 million.<\/p>\n<p>The commission chairperson Fran Thorn said that despite Crown\u2019s cooperative attitude during the disciplinary proceedings, the record $80 million fine was appropriate and necessary in light of the seriousness of the casino\u2019s illegal conduct.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrown\u2019s CUP process was a clandestine, deliberate process, which not only breached the Casino Control\u00a0Act but was also devised to assist patrons in breaching China\u2019s foreign currency exchange restrictions,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vcglr.vic.gov.au\/media-release\/vgccc-imposes-80-million-fine-crown-melbourne-china-union-pay-process\">Thorn said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrown was aware of the risk that the CUP process could be illegal but decided to run that risk.<\/p>\n<p>The VGCCC also said that apart from the scheme, Crown also had other mechanisms that continued after 2016 and allowed cash to be withdrawn via bank cards at its hotels. The money would then be potentially used for gambling purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Although Crown casino has denied that those transactions breached the laws, the VGCCC will investigate the issue.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the gambling regulator is contemplating taking additional disciplinary proceedings against Crown in relation to other findings, with each of them potentially attracting a fine of up to $100 million.<\/p>\n<p>Facing the investigations, Crown said it acknowledged its \u201chistoric failings\u201d while pledging to carry out a comprehensive reform and cooperate with the VGCC on other issues.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-alfred-bui\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Web_Alfred-1.jpg\" alt=\"Alfred Bui\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Alfred Bui is an Australian reporter based in Melbourne and focuses on local and business news. He is a former small business owner and has two master\u2019s degrees in business and business law. Contact him at alfred.bui@epochtimes.com.au.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victoria\u2019s Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) has fined Crown Melbourne $80 million (US$57.5 million) for organising a scheme that enabled illegal money transfers from China.The fine was imposed after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1497512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1497512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1497512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1497512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}