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Casinos, like dirty money launderers

2023-06-29 14:34:00, Aktualitet CNA

Illustrative photo

In Albania, what is being noticed is the phenomenon of the opening and expansion of casinos. Everywhere in the world they exist, they are in control, they have standards, for 5-star hotels, brands and others like these.

There was a historic casino in Tirana, it is in Taiwan, which you can go and see full of people, or another casino in the center of the "Plaza" hotel.

On the other hand, what happened. Apart from these two casinos, others have expanded in Tirana or in the south.

It goes to the center, to the "Air Albania" casino stadium, in front of it to the former Sheratoni casino, across to the Dry Lake casino. Hotels that are standardized with 5 stars.

The "pandemic" of casinos has exploded.

Do you say that these casinos are full, and two or three, a limited number of them, would probably be enough for the capital, but the government has decided to have no restrictions, to provide unlimited casinos. Making a simple observation, in many of Albania's casinos, what stands out is the fact that two or three of them are frequented, while the rest are almost empty, there are more employees than people playing, even though they have hotels with high standards.

Casinos are also seen as an instrument for laundering dirty money and the scheme is quite simple. They declare huge amounts of money as if people are playing for one round or more, but in fact no one has played. They are simply part of the launderer of black money.

Or on the other hand, hotel rooms are declared and invoiced, which are empty, with certain values, and are part of the money scheme, that is, of the washing machine. 3,000, 4,000 or even 5,000 rooms are declared per year, with a simple calculation, the value of which is 100 or 150 euros, which are called free data from casinos, and so on, creating a chain effect of money laundering.

One of the criminology experts told CNA.al that this is a well-known phenomenon in the world and Albania cannot escape it and the only way to have a correct approach is strict control over these structures, where in most countries of the world dirty money circulates and casinos are used as laundromats.

The phenomena are well known.

Eksperienca ka treguar se ka jo pak raste në Evropë, por janë shumë të vështira për t’u kontrolluar dhe menaxhuar, pra, për të gjetur “damarët” nga hyjnë paratë e pista.

Në fakt, në Tiranë ka shumë kazino që kanë më shumë punonjës sesa lojtarë. Çka fillon dhe ngre jo pak pikëpyetje në lidhje me arsyen pse funksionojnë ato.

Are you saying that they are really opened because of 5-star hotel brands, on the other hand, they are simply instruments to clean black money, to extract it in white, through the declaration of hotel rooms or the declaration of amounts of money played, while most of the casinos seem to be empty and have no players, including those in the south of Albania that at certain times may have flow due to tourism, but the rest of the time are empty, while they declare turnover income and others like these.

A clear scheme that tells us that the alarm sirens need to be turned on.

So, gambling management cannot simply be a tourist aspect or a high standard for 5-star hotels, but casinos are a risk that they can turn into dirty money launderers./ CNA