Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) has been found to have breached several Singaporean laws by failing to conduct necessary checks, according to the Gaming Regulatory Authority (GRA).
The regulatory violations relate to the Casino Control Act of 2006 and the Casino Control (Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing) Regulations of 2009.
The investigation by GRA traces back to 2022 when both RWS and Marina Bay Sands, another casino operator, were directed to review the activities of specific patrons.
During this review, RWS identified non-compliance issues in certain transactions and promptly reported them to GRA.
Subsequent investigations by the regulator revealed that RWS had not performed the prescribed customer due diligence checks from December 2016 to December 2019.
These lapses pertained to RWS collecting cash amounts of $5,000 or more from third parties for deposit into patron accounts.
GRA stated that RWS had failed to establish the identities of all third-party depositors and did not maintain the required identifying information or verify identities from reliable and independent sources as mandated by the PMLTF Regulations.
Although RWS had a framework and controls in place, GRA uncovered “systematic” failures that resulted in non-compliance going undetected.
Acknowledging RWS’s subsequent efforts to enhance its processes and corporate culture, GRA still imposed fines of just under S$2.3 million.
The regulatory authority also canceled the special employee license of one staff member involved in the breaches and initiated further investigations into the culpability of other special employees.
A spokesperson for GRA emphasized the seriousness of these lapses, vowing not to hesitate in taking disciplinary actions against errant casino operators while maintaining strict regulatory oversight over their compliance.
This development follows a separate incident where Singaporean police seized assets worth over S$2.40 billion in September, as part of investigations into illegal online gambling activities.
These assets were connected to a group of foreign nationals suspected of laundering proceeds from overseas organized criminal activities, including scams and online gambling.
The seized assets included bank accounts valued at more than $1.13 billion, over $76.0 million in cash, gold bars, luxury bags, watches, jewelry, electronic devices, and more than $38.0 million in cryptocurrency.