In NSW, newer machines allow $5000, and older machines up to $10,000. In Queensland, you can put only $100 into a poker machine at one time. But it’s still a sizeable proportion of the estimated $20 billion in criminal proceeds laundered in NSW each year. Sophisticated criminals have other methods. This is not a preferred method for most organised criminals, the crime commission says. Laundering money through a local club or hotel involves loading cash into one of the state’s 86,640 poker machines, then cashing out and claiming the money as winnings. Predictably, the industry is claiming it’s not an issue, and solutions are too difficult.
Billions of dollars in proceeds of crime are being funnelled through clubs and pubs in New South Wales, according to the NSW Crime Commission.
