The South African casino industry expressed puzzlement on Thursday at South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Tito Mboweni’s accusation that they were not helping to catch money launderers.
Casinos actively assisted the authorities in apprehending money launderers, said South African Casino Association chief executive Derek Auret.
Any customer who presented a casino cashier with a stained banknote would be detained, investigated, handed over to the police and the incident reported to the relevant authorities, he said.
Mboweni charged on Thursday that cash-in-transit robbers were using casinos to launder stolen money.
”We have, I think, generally done well to encircle [the robbers], but the casino companies are not helping us and I think it would be helpful if the casinos would come to the party,” he told an Investment Solutions business breakfast in Johannesburg.
”When these thugs have stolen the money and it has been inked, they take it to any casino, go to the window, receive tokens, then go to another window to exchange these tokens for cash and out.
”The casinos end up with this cash that is not useable.”
Mboweni said the SARB refused to exchange this cash for ”real money”.
Defending the casino industry, Auret said casinos were as committed as Mboweni to fighting crime.
”… Our successful track record in dealing with attempted money laundering demonstrates our bona fides in this regard,” he said.
A number of syndicates and individuals had been apprehended at casinos trying to launder stained bank notes.
The ”voracity and effectiveness” of the sophisticated security systems casinos had in place to detect and deal with crime was evidenced in the exposure of numerous major syndicates in recent months — two of them in the past two weeks, Auret said.
Mboweni told business persons that cash-in-transit heists were one of a number of issues that kept him awake at night.
The SARB had to ensure cash was available throughout the country, which necessitated moving it in bulk from main production points.
Although the police and South African National Defence Force helped distribute it, ”with all these cash heists I get extremely worried”, he said.
Even the Bank of England had recently been robbed, he pointed out.
”I have been working with the banking sector to ensure any cash that is stolen is not useable.”
This included using boxes fitted with devices to render the cash unusable. These were ”helpful”.
However, no sooner was a new method of preventing crime devised than ”thugs” found a way around it, said Mboweni.
Mboweni said other things on his mind were: consumers so accustomed to high interest they went on a spending spree whenever rates came down; the current-account deficit; and where on the curve the monetary policy committee was moving.
Other issues of concern were the exodus of skilled black employees to the private sector, and the country’s expanding international agenda.
He suggested that South Africans take advantage of the business opportunities offered by new partnerships with Russia and good relations with the Middle East. — Sapa