TAB workers allowing shonky punters to place bets through middlemen
Nick McKenzie, Kate McClymont
5 Aug 2016, 6 p.m.
Employees at TAB gaming outlets are breaching anti-money laundering controls by allowing controversial punters to place bets, collect winnings or shift funds through middlemen and third-party betting accounts.
Betting records linked to controversial Sydney gambler Eddie Hayson - who bets alongside Victorian jockey Danny Nikolic, National Rugby League identities and figures with organised crime links - suggest a small number of TAB outlet staff are willfully ignoring prohibited betting practices.
The practices include the use of TAB phone accounts belonging to third parties, and a network of middlemen, known as "bowlers", to bet and collect winnings. They bet multiple times in amounts less than $10,000, because any transaction over $10,000 is automatically reported to anti-money laundering authorities.
The failure by a small number of TAB outlet staff to prevent or report these suspicious betting practices makes it harder for authorities to uncover or retrospectively investigate suspect financial or betting transactions.
Fairfax Media revealed on Friday that betting linked to Hayson on an NRL match in April and a horse race in May involved money passing through a number of middlemen and TAB outlets and accounts.
The NSW Police organised crime squad is evaluating betting data linked to the Parramatta versus Manly match in April, in addition to two NRL matches last year, to determine if there is any evidence to sustain allegations - vehemently denied by Hayson - of match fixing or the leaking of inside information.
Authorities in NSW and Victoria are also examining Hayson's use of a TAB account belonging to the girlfriend of jockey Danny Nikolic to shift funds and bet last year.
Police and racing authorities in Victoria continue to battle Nikolic in court as the Caulfield Cup winner seeks to regain his jockey licence and block police efforts to ban him from racetracks.
The Supreme Court recently overturned Nikolic's racetrack ban, ruling that the jockey had been denied procedural fairness when police did not disclose to him the criminal intelligence they relied on to issue the ban and which is understood to contain damning phone tap material suggesting Nikolic's historical involvement in race fixing.
Supporters of Hayson, who declined to comment, say that he uses third-party accounts and middlemen to avoid his TAB ban and to place large bets, rather than to engage in any suspect practices.
Hayson is just one of dozens of punters with links to organised crime figures who use third-party TAB accounts to bet or shift funds, despite the practice being banned.
A group of notorious criminal figures in Victoria are previously suspected by police to have paid kickbacks to a suburban TAB operator to facilitate the group's betting operations.
A Tabcorp spokesman said the company is "continually investing in our systems to ensure the security of our customers' TAB account funds and compliance with our regulatory obligations".
"If our agents or staff don't comply, we take action including revoking their TAB accreditation, cancelling their TAB agency agreements or other disciplinary action, including terminating their employment."
TAB's owner, Tabcorp, has moved to reform its internal controls after Australia's anti-money laundering agency AUSTRAC began action to seek multimillion-dollar penalties against the firm in the Federal Court last year.
AUSTRAC recently said in a statement it is running an "ongoing investigation into Tabcorp's extensive, significant and systemic non-compliance with Australia's money laundering" laws.
To track suspicious betting, TAB relies on computer analysis and small teams of diligent internal investigators. But until recently, sources said these investigation teams lacked the resources to conduct in-depth monitoring into the huge number of bets flagged as potentially suspicious.
Law enforcement agencies across Australia have uncovered the use of third-party TAB accounts in multiple unrelated probes.
Other betting companies are also vulnerable to exploitation. For instance, state and federal authorities are continuing to probe how Betfair has been used by Victorian underworld figure and big punter Horty Mokbel as an online bank and suspected vehicle for laundering millions of dollars of drug money.
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