Suspected criminals slipping through casino bans has been a major issue at the state government inquiry into whether The Star Entertainment Group should keep its Queensland casino licences.
The suspected ’Ndrangheta member – referred to as Person 2 – was banned from Victorian casinos in December 2014 and banned from NSW casinos in June 2015. However,the person was not barred from Queensland casinos until January 2021.
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The inquiry heard Person 2’s name was spelt differently in casino records and media reports about their alleged exploits,so Star’s anti-money laundering system only picked up articles using the spelling on file.
Also,Star’s anti-money laundering team would see media articles about high-value casino customers but they could not read them all because they did not have subscriptions to the publications.
Person 2 became one of The Star Gold Coast’s top 10 players.
Star anti-money laundering general manager Howard Steiner said the casino giant had since improved its policies,so someone with a history like that of Person 2 would now trigger background and money source checks.