KEY POINTS:
Over recent weeks the Weekend Herald has been investigating reports of criminal activity in casinos and confirmed the impressions of patrons and agencies involved that the industry has become infested with money-laundering, loan-sharking and organised crime.
This and other claims and investigations have prompted Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker to seek reports from his department which he released this week.
His officials see no need for a public inquiry. They say they have already initiated better monitoring of suspicious activities and will continue to improve it.
The minister seems less than impressed. He has ordered the department to develop a more thorough understanding of the crimes they are supposed to be detecting and, once they have done so, he hopes to organise a more co-operative system of law enforcement, involving the police, Ministry of Justice and his gambling inspectors.
Why, it must be asked, has all of this not been done long ago?
When casinos were permitted in this country 20 years ago we had our eyes open to the risks of organised crime.
A facility where large amounts of money can be quickly won and lost is ideal for passing off the cash earnings of drug trafficking and other crimes as legitimate winnings.
And the excitement of the gambling environment is such that some patrons will be easy marks for loan sharks who offer cash at high interest and little security for themselves, loans that might only be recovered by threats and violence.
It is some consolation that the officials find no active collusion on the part of casino personnel.
Accusations brought to public attention by two former employees of the Christchurch Casino have been discredited by the department's officers on the grounds that the accusers are seeking a casino licence themselves and the only way anyone can get one under law passed by this Government is to take over an existing licence. No additional casinos are permitted.
But casino managements have been too passive in their attitude to the criminality their facilities can serve. It would not seem too difficult for casinos to be alert to patrons passing suspicious quantities of cash through their windows fairly regularly and it should be possible to spot lenders on the lookout for easy prey even if their standover recovery methods happen well away from the premises.
The Internal Affairs reports note, rather too sympathetically, the "intrinsic tension" between casinos' interest in maximising turnover and their responsibility to minimise opportunities for dishonesty and crime.
"In the fast-paced casino gambling environment," they say, "customer identification and transaction reporting procedures can be perceived as detracting from the customer's entertainment experience."
Immigration patterns have clearly added to the problem in the years since casinos were permitted. The department says it has evidence that organised groups "predominantly of Asian ethnicity" frequent casinos for purposes of "criminal networking, money laundering and social gambling using illegitimate funds". They are not alone. The department is "also aware of ethnic gangs, motorcycle gangs and international crime entities" exploiting the casino for illegal purposes.
The solution, they say, requires a co-ordinated effort with all state agencies including police, customs and immigration. The minister means to see that it happens. It must. The casinos may not be complete hotbeds of crime but they could too easily become so if they are not monitored vigilantly and regularly reminded of the limits of social tolerance.
