Singapore’s casino operators filed 10,261 suspicious transaction reports with the city-state’s police last year, according to the recently-published 2024 annual report of the Singapore Police Force’s Commercial Affairs Department.
The force said it received a total of 85,988 suspicious transaction reports, known as STRs, from all sources in 2024, representing an increase of 28.8 per cent compared with the previous year.
The report did not provide a year-on-year comparison for the casino sector.
The Singapore Police Force’s Commercial Affairs Department includes the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office, which is responsible for detecting money laundering, terrorism financing and other related serious crimes.
The banking sector filed the highest number of reports in 2024, at 59,945, reflecting Singapore’s status as a well-known international financial and banking centre. Casinos ranked second, accounting for 11.9 percent of the total.
During the same year, the Macau gaming sector filed an aggregate of 3,837 suspicious transaction reports, the highest number recorded for a 12-month period since record-keeping by the Macau Financial Intelligence Office began in 2006.
The Singapore police said in the latest report that the “sustained growth in reporting activity reflects the continued vigilance of reporting entities in detecting suspicious transactions and increased awareness of the money laundering and terrorist financing risks in Singapore, particularly in the designated non-financial businesses and professions sectors”.
Under Singapore regulations, if a casino operator knows or has “reasonable grounds” to suspect that any party may be connected to criminal activity, it is required to file a suspicious transaction report with the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office. Failure to do so may constitute a criminal offence.
The Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office also receives cash transaction reports, known as CTRs.
“The number of CTRs received continued to increase in 2024,” the office said, reaching 457,459 for the year. The figure “significantly” surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when approximately 374,000 reports were received.
The body added: “The sustained increase in CTRs is largely attributed to an increase in CTRs filed by casinos.”
One of the features of anti-money laundering controls in Singapore is the cash transaction reporting requirement. A casino operator must report to the local authorities each cash transaction of SGD10,000 (circa US$7,800) or more – including cash-in or cash-out transactions – within 15 days of the transaction taking place. Cash is defined as “currency notes and coins”.
