Jeremy Kaplan
You may have encountered the term ‘money laundering’ in movies or news reports and this is because it is a common process used by organized criminals to hide money made through criminal activity such as drug dealing or illegal arms sales. Laundering money is not any easy process and it involves a certain amount of skill and knowledge to keep transactions below suspicion.
Laundering money through banks is risky as unusual banking activity can gain the attention of authorities and if they suspect money laundering then the investigation can go as high as the FBI. Criminal gangs often choose to bypass the financial sector because of the risks involved.
When criminals make huge sums of money through crime, the cash is described as being dirty money that needs to be cleaned to appear legitimate and this is why the financial sector is commonly used, if it cannot be bypassed. The money is also commonly hidden from the taxman as well and again, money laundering is the most effective way of doing this.
Money laundering is a crime that governments are constantly trying to crack down on because they fear that money can be used to fund terrorism.
Money Laundering and Gambling
Making large sums of money is usually the number one aim of most criminal gangs and in the past such individuals have targeted the gambling industry. Before the gambling industry went mainstream, criminal gangs regularly used it to create wealth and to launder money through gambling establishments. If you go back to the early days of Las Vegas, many of the casinos were owned and controlled by the mob. The mafia also widely used these casinos to launder money. In fact, mob rule in Las Vegas was only brought to an end in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when major mobsters were jailed for serious offences such as murder. Crime leveled off slowly during the 1990s and today Las Vegas is a respectable highly regulated tourist attraction and money laundering is now rare.
Gambling Enters The Mainstream
Gambling has had a major facelift recently and since it went online it has developed into a major hobby for millions of people. Since there are so many people gambling, the need for new regulations to keep players safe means that the criminal element has been slowly pushed out. In the UK the Gambling Commission oversees all gambling establishments and it also sets aside strict criteria for all of them to abide by. The revenue created by gambling is now at record levels, but the new set up where online slots gambling is the dominant force, has so far been mostly free of the involvement of organized crime. Instead, gambling brands sponsor football teams and mainstream TV programs – click to play now.
Gambling Today
With online slots casinos constantly being scrutinized by the organizations that grant them licenses, it is highly unlikely that modern day online slots players could engage in money laundering whether it is on purpose or by accident.
