Clubs Australia Joins AGA to Stop Illegal Online Gambling
According to a recent article in the Australian news source Australia’s Clubs Australia is forming an alliance with the American Gaming Association. The common goal of the two organizations is to respond to the number of illegal online gambling web locations which pose the threat of money laundering and possible financing of terrorist activity.
Anthony Ball the Executive Director of the Clubs Australia commented that the issue required an international model to address the problem. “What we have had with the advent of the internet and online gambling is activity on phones and tablets that is unregulated — it’s the Wild West.” Ball added, “You have companies who ¬operate in tax havens internationally providing these services to Australians illegally.”
Clubs Australia is the coalition of state and territory associations representing the interests of more than 6,500 licensed clubs across Australia and New Zealand. The areas of interest for the organization include taxation; industrial relations; tourism; skills and training; alcohol policy; and gambling reform. The American Gaming Association and Clubs Australia plan to coordinate efforts to provide details of illegal operations to governments to force illegal sites to close. They also plan to call on their governments to ramp up efforts to target offending firms.
Ball warned that the illegal offshore sites could be used for money laundering and or terrorism financing. Australia’s financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC recently revealed it had recorded a 300 per cent increase in the number of ¬suspicious money transactions ¬relating to terrorism activity. Similar to the actions taken by the American Department of Justice Clubs Australia is also calling for action to ensure Australian ¬financial institutions that facil¬itate transactions with illegal ¬operators stop. Ball said there were Australian businesses “knowingly or unwittingly” enabling transact¬ions on illegal gambling services. “We will be speaking and writing to them telling them they shouldn’t be and, if they are, to stop it as they are enabling an illegal¬ transaction,” Ball explained.
