Australian operator Sportsbet and bet365 face AUSTRAC audits

The auditors have 180 days from their employment to release the audit reports.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has ordered the appointment of auditors to assess Australian operator Sportsbet and bet365’s compliance to the country’s anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) Act from 2006.

Focus points for the auditors will be how the companies are adopting and maintaining AML/CTF programs, whether there are risk-based controls and systems that assure the effective mitigation, identification, and management of money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF) risks.

This means the finished reports will also provide information on whether the companies have been found to have appropriate internal ML/TF risk assessment procedures that are tailored to the specific types of customers that the businesses deal with.

It’s important to note that Sportsbet, the company in question, is the Australian online sports betting company, not the hot crypto sports betting website Sportsbet.io.

The auditors were ordered under section 162 of the AML/CTF act and are required to issue the reports within 180 days of their appointment, so an update on findings and developments is pending.

The reports will form the basis on which AUSTRAC will decide whether any further regulatory action is needed.

This order comes as part of AUSTRAC’s plan of “putting the whole industry on notice to lift their game”, as its chief executive officer, Nicole Rose, was cited saying in the media release, available on AUSTRAC’s website.

Sportsbet (again – not Sportsbet.io) and bet365 are two of the largest operators in Australia, and just recently Entain was put under the microscope, so it seems like AUSTRAC is rather serious with these external audits.

The end goal is to ensure that operators have created and implemented a solid AML/CTF framework that works all the way from the board room, through management to entry-level employees.

A successful strategy according AUSTRAC’s requirements should also pay close attention to the customers by mitigating and monitoring risk factors, with appropriate tools developed to identify and manage groups in which ML or TF is likely.

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Written by Kyamil Nasuf

Reporter

Kyamil is a big tech fan, who loves hummus on everything and has enjoyed writing from a young age. He's had experience in writing anything from essays, through personal art, to news pieces and more serious tech analysis. In recent years he’s found fintech and gambling collide with all his interests, so he truly is a great fit to our team.

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