Singapore Proposals Include Arms Financing in Casino Anti-Money Laundering Laws

Lina Portman3 days ago

0 1 minute read

Singapore's parliament has introduced a bill requiring casinos to implement enhanced customer due diligence efforts to combat money laundering linked to terrorism and arms financing.

The Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Other Matters Bill includes an amendment to the current Casino Control Act requiring casino operators to carry out enhanced customer due diligence (CDD) checks.

These measures will help detect and prevent money laundering (ML) activities that may support terrorist financing (TF) and proliferation financing (PF), which are linked to the illegal development and supply of weapons of mass destruction.

The new measures would require CDD checks for cash transactions or deposits of S$4,000 or more made by casino operators in Singapore.

Currently, CDD checks are carried out when casino operators make a single transaction of S$10,000 (£5,800/€6,850/$7,398) or more, or receive S$5,000 or more in a single transaction to be deposited into a deposit account.

In a statement dated July 2, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs said: “To align our processes with FATF (Financial Action Task Force) standards, the changes will require casino operators to also consider FP risks during customer due diligence checks. The Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) of Singapore will be empowered to issue regulations requiring casino operators to detect or prevent FP.”

The FATF is the global watchdog against money laundering and terrorist financing.

The government said it was seeking to increase the effectiveness of its laws against the “changing criminal landscape” by giving its law enforcement agencies (LEAs) more powers and improving processes related to combating money laundering.

The bill follows three days of discussions within the FATF in Singapore, although the sovereign country is not currently on any of the FATF's black or grey lists that would require increased action or monitoring.

The bill was introduced for first reading in Singapore's Parliament on Tuesday (July 2).

In December, Resorts World Sentosa was fined S$2.3 million after failing to carry out CDD checks, breaching AML rules.

The GRA said Resorts World Sentosa had breached several Singapore laws by failing to carry out required checks. These include the Casino Control Act 2006 and the Casino Control (Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing) Regulations 2009.