 "Goa casinos deny possibility of being used as fronts")
The casino operators in Goa today refuted the suggestion that casinos could be acting as fronts for money-laundering or for funding the terrorists.
The operators, at a joint press conference here, said the annual report by Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Union Finance Ministry had been misquoted in this regard.
Shrinivas Nayak of Casino Pride said the trade had always been wary of dubious-looking transactions, and the authorities were kept in the loop about anything fishy.
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In the last one year, as many as 50 dubious transactions were reported to FIU by the casinos in Goa, he said.
“FIU, in the annual report, has said that there are 8,000 financial transactions at various industries which were of suspicious nature,” he said.
John Snowball, vice president (gaming and operation), Casino Crown, said casino would be the last place the people would turn to for money laundering or terror financing.
“Everyone entering is under CCTV surveillance. Every transaction is recorded,” Snowball said. “There are guidelines which say that transaction above a certain limit needs to be reported to FIU. But that does not mean that the money is ill-gotten or being funded to terrorist organisation. Genuineness of the source of money is always found out by the authorities.”
Nayak admitted that fake currency had been an issue at the casinos. “People are trying to push fake currency everywhere. It’s the problem of whole country,” he said.
Staff was trained to prevent this, according to casino representatives. “There were instances where people tried to push in fake notes, but we caught them and handed them over to police,” Nayak said.
Goa has around 20 casinos at present.
PTI
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