08:16
17 Nov
Melbourne’s Crown Casino, home of the Aussie Millions, has come under intense scrutiny after whistleblowing gambling inspectors leaked CCTV of huge amounts of money being allegedly laundered in its highroller junket room.
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The footage appears to show a man pulling bricks of $50 and $100 banknotes from a shopping bag and exchanging them for high-value casino chips.
This, it is claimed, is a regular occurrence in the Suncity junket room, a dedicated highroller gambling area in the Crown run by a Macau-based tour operator catering to wealthy Chinese gamblers.
The alleged money-laundering claims made it all the way to the federal parliament as MP Andrew Wilkie called for a Royal Commission to investigate the gambling industry.
Mr Wilkie revealed he was sent the footage “because a number of Victorian government gambling investigators decided they had had enough of all the lies and cover-ups”.
He added:
'These investigators say they've been forced to watch on as crimes are routinely committed inside Crown, only for Crown to then publicly deny everything. '
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One whistleblower can be heard, his voice obscured, saying:
“People probably think that everything that goes on is squeaky clean...but in fact it’s fucked.' He adds: “Anybody can walk in with any amount of money and launder it…nobody really cares.”
Then Crown has come under fire on numerous occasions, allegations of money laundering, machine tampering, drug running and domestic violence at the casino all appearing over the past few years.
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Wilkie, who had earlier calls for a Royal Commission voted down by parliament, stated:
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“For many years we’ve been told of shocking crimes occurring at Crown and now we have new footage that supports these claims.”
A Crown spokesperson responded by saying there is 'no basis to these allegations' and claiming that it has “a comprehensive anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing program”.