Singapore’s Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) is to reduce by 20 percent the cash deposit amount directed to a casino client’s account that will be subject to customer due diligence checks.
The trigger for such scrutiny will be cut to SGD4,000 (about US$2,950) from SGD5,000, in either of the city’s casinos, according to a Monday report from Singapore-based news outlet CNA.
The step would be implemented this year, according to the news outlet, but it added that the authorities did not state precisely when the new requirements would take effect.
The city-state’s updated Money Laundering National Risk Assessment, made public last week, had mentioned the gambling regulator’s intention to reduce the diligence threshold for casino-customer transactions.
The document stated: “To further enhance the casino sector’s AML/CFT [anti-money laundering/combatting the financing of terrorism] regime, GRA will be imposing legislative amendments to lower the prescribed customer due diligence threshold for casino transactions, and to align them with the FATF standards.”
The latter was a reference to the Paris-based international watchdog the Financial Action Task Force. The FATF held plenary and working group meetings in Singapore last week.
T. Raja Kumar, the inaugural chief executive of the GRA’s predecessor body, the Casino Regulatory Authority, was president of the FATF from July 1, 2022, up to June 30 this year.
Singapore’s Money Laundering National Risk Assessment mentioned that the GRA “reviews existing regulatory requirements periodically, with a view to strengthening the sector’s AML/CFT regime.”
It added: “To ensure compliance and effectiveness of the AML/CFT measures, GRA will continue to perform risk-focused monitoring and inspections of the casino operators commensurate with the moderately higher risks presented by the sector.”
Singapore has a casino duopoly between Resorts World Sentosa, run by Genting Singapore Ltd, and Marina Bay Sands, run by a unit of Las Vegas Sands Corp.
The report document referred to the money laundering threat to Singapore’s casinos as being “moderately high” due to factors including that many of the venues’ players were from outside the country.
