Casinos Austria International (CAI) has been fined AU$10,000 (US$6,725) for breaching the Casino Control Act by paying a local junket agent to bring groups of players to its Australian casino, Reef Hotel Casino in Cairns, during a six-month period in early 2021.
According to a report by ABC News, Reef Hotel Casino paid Lawrence Fu – the same agent named as having had relationships with Crown Resorts and Star Entertainment Group during recent junket investigations – in betting vouchers to bring groups of between 22 and 24 people from December 2020 to May 2021.
Under Queensland’s Casino Control Act, any agreements with agents must be pre-approved in writing by the gaming minister. Fu was paid AU$21,400 in betting vouchers, representing 0.05% of turnover, the court was told.
However, the AU$10,000 fine was considerably lower than the maximum $26,110 the casino could have faced with the magistrate noting that CAI had entered an early guilty plea and cooperated with authorities throughout.
The breach was also “not a deliberate contravention of the Act”, she said, adding, “I accept that you have not only offered an apology for the compliance failure but this mistake cannot be repeated because you have undertaken additional compliance training for staff. This includes a two-and-a-half hour training session on Casino Control Act compliance.”
Aside from the Reef Hotel Casino, CAI operates around two-dozen casinos across Europe and was last year selected as the preferred partner of Nagasaki in its bid to develop an integrated resort in Sasebo City, Japan. CAI and Nagasaki Prefecture are currently waiting to discover if they have been granted an IR license by Japan’s central government, having submitted their joint bid in April.
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