Money laundering is a foundational function for transnational organized crime, back office activity moving illicit profits to the right place without interdiction by law enforcement or criminal rivals. Gaming is popular around the world, functioning in regulated, under-regulated and unregulated markets. The chapter explores the exploitation of gaming systems by money launderers, hiding illicit financial flows in the larger stream of gaming revenue.
The chapter begins with a discussion of money laundering, gaming and the regulatory systems used to manage risk. The Canadian system is offered as an example. The chapter then explores money laundering typologies that have pierced the regulatory systems governing land-based casinos in Canada, the United States and Australia. Typologies that can penetrate the regulated online gaming system in Europe are then considered.
The chapter then moves to the massive gaming grey market, where gaming is either unregulated or under-regulated. Junkets and an intense demand to evade Chinese restrictions on gaming and capital flight have created a perfect storm, opening up a massive informal value transfer system that has spread from Southeast Asia into all corners of the world. The resultant underground banking network has matched professional money launderers with transnational organized crime worldwide, including Central American drug cartels and European organized crime.
The chapter briefly notes the challenges posed by match-fixing and corruption in sport. The links between gaming, cryptocurrency and terrorism/proliferation financing are considered. Finally, the chapter concludes with three examples that show the linkages between gaming, transnational organized crime and money laundering. The chapter concludes by observing that while there is ample literature discussing money laundering and research into gaming, more work needs to be done on the linkages between the two activities.
