Field guide

Proxy Betting / Hidden Ownership

How it works

A wealthy individual uses a front person (proxy) to gamble on their behalf, hiding their identity to avoid sanctions, taxes, credit issues, or self-exclusion restrictions. The true player provides funds and direction to a proxy who places bets in their own name. Phone betting, a person at the table wagering for an absent client, was used in Macau VIP rooms until the gaming regulator banned phones at tables from 9 May 2016. The regulator said the practice had invited misunderstandings. Lawyers said it opened a know-your-customer gap. An analyst estimated it at about 5 to 10 percent of VIP revenue. The proxy may be a junket employee, friend, or paid agent.

On the record

Macau banned phone use at gaming tables from 9 May 2016. An analyst had put phone betting at about 5 to 10 percent of VIP revenue and operators called their exposure insignificant. In 2022 Singapore introduced a bill to make casino proxy gambling a crime. The record does not show the practice as endemic. In July 2023 the Federal Court of Australia ordered Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth to pay a $450 million penalty for breaches of anti-money-laundering law. The failures described were risk assessment, controls, oversight, a junket relationship, and unmonitored high-risk play. The penalty was not for failing to identify proxy betting.

Published as a detection reference for surveillance, compliance and gaming-operations professionals. Thresholds and tuning are set by the property. Nothing here is instruction: the method is described so it can be recognised.