Daegu Casino fined KRW1.05 billion for regulatory violations, AML failings

South Korea’s Daegu Casino has been penalized KRW1.05 billion (US$776,512) by the country’s by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for regulatory violations and anti-money laundering (AML) failings during a three-year period.

Following an inquiry into the hotel’s foreigners-only casino, the FIU found that, between July 2019 and April 2023, Daegu Casino failed to confirm the identity and line of work of 58 clients who either made individual transactions totaling more than KRW3.0 million or were classified as “high-risk customers” under the AML regulations in place at the time.

Additionally, the FIU said that Daegu Casino missed 24 opportunities to properly report “high-value casino chip transactions” during certain times in 2019. The FIU ordered various policy modifications from Daegu Casino in response to these findings. These included creating a digital system, updating their “suspicious transaction reporting” system, and dedicating people for AML training.

Aside from the regulatory violations, one of the Daegu Casino’s executives also got a warning from the authorities in addition to the punishment.

After a brief pause brought on the pandemic-related closures in 2020, the FIU started AML compliance inspections at nine gaming locations in mainland South Korea in January 2022. It should be noted that the maximum penalty for any business for an AML violation was set at KRW 100 million, and companies found to have violated the rule ran the possibility of having the board member in charge of AML compliance at the time of the breach fired, according to the FIU spokeswoman.

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Original story by: GGRAsia