Court Clears John Wallis of Fraud Allegations in Casino Business Dealings

Casinos, whose root comes from the word “house,” are national and transnational businesses where games of chance are played, often combined with slot machine games. Games of chance are those in which everything depends on luck. The player cannot control the outcome.

These include games such as slot machines, bingo, lotteries, coupons, or dice.” On the other hand, in games of technique or skill, knowledge and training in the game can favor the results, for example, in games of chess, checkers, and video games, among others. But it should not be forgotten that in these games of skill, the player’s behavior or skill also influences the outcome.

In addition, there are games that combine technique and chance, such as card games, lotteries, board games, etc., in which luck and knowledge are combined. Finally, there are competitive games, such as some sports. These games range in level, from traditional to high-risk gambling.

In general, casinos guarantee high revenues and, for this reason, represent a primary economic power. Because they handle large amounts of capital, they turn entrepreneurs into capitalists, with the most lucrative income. Gambling became the largest industry of the 21st century.

If state lotteries, horse racing, card rooms, sporting events, casinos, and Internet gaming are included, American spending on gambling increased from $2 billion in 1962 to $866 billion in 2000, with a profit of $70 billion for the gaming industry in the latter year.

In contrast, other areas of entertainment only generated $22 billion in revenue in 2000. From this boom, during the period cited, it can be seen that the gambling industry’s profits increased three times more than those of other entertainment.

In 1864, Nevada was officially recognized as a state because President Lincoln was interested in taxing mineral resources to finance the American Civil War. Las Vegas, a city in the Nevada desert, had little to offer tourists other than the mines, and for this reason, new alternatives were sought, one of which was gambling.

Finally, in 1930, permission was granted to open casinos in the state of Nevada, and starting in 1931, the first casinos emerged, all of which were notoriously linked to organized crime.

Evidently, the city of Las Vegas became the pinnacle of gambling, boasting the twelve largest hotels in the world and thirty casinos with the most lucrative entertainment centers; these attracted, in 2002, more than 35 million visitors.

Another casino site was Atlantic City, New Jersey, which at the end of the 20th century generated $3 billion in casino revenue. In comparison, the Las Vegas gambling industry generated $6 billion, not counting the revenue from gambling outed by hotels, restaurants, and related businesses. In total, $50 billion was generated annually by all the casinos in the United States.

If one reflects on this description of the development of the gambling industry in the United States, one can see that Western capitalism creates the need for gambling based on the idea that people want to get rich quickly.

Casinos, businesses with a large circulation of money, are also favorable places for money laundering because they make it possible to hide its illicit origins through investment in gambling.

There are three stages of money laundering: the introduction stage or “placement of funds,” the transformation or “decantation of funds,” and the reconversion or integration stage.

The first stage involves pre-laundering, a process during which the amount of money is divided into fractions and deposited in various financial institutions.

For this process of entering the legal economy, they use so-called “surfs,” that is, “people who deposit small amounts of money daily in various bank accounts or exchange small amounts of local currency for US dollars so that they can be transferred internationally.

” Often, cash deposits are made in night time safe deposit boxes, a means used to conceal the identity of the person making such deposits in the bank.

In these cases, it is common to see several accounts opened in the names of different “shell” or “paper” companies, that is, legal entities for which only a corporate contract exists, legally registered in the corresponding Public Registry of Commerce.

The second stage of fund decanting “is achieved through a series of financial transactions that seek to obscure the trace of illicit origin of the deposited money.”

To achieve this objective, the money moves from one account to another in different financial institutions in different countries with a rapid turnover rate; financial instruments are acquired and subsequently sold to purchase shares in the financial market.

These shares are then sold to place the funds in collateral with high liquidity certainty that can be used to finance investment projects. Through these transactions, the trail of illicit money is lost, and it appears as legal money.

Finally, in the third stage (integration of funds), a symbiosis of laundered money with money from legal activities is achieved.

To uncover the source of illegal funds, the money is used in legal or “ghost” companies in various countries: in real estate, purchases, hotels, public works, privatizations, etc. There is a reconversion or integration into the formal economy to legitimize illicit amounts and justify the origin of the ill-gotten money.

Among the most primitive mechanisms of money laundering is converting cash of identifiable illicit origin into anonymous cash by acquiring tokens or gambling chips and, sometime later, converting these tokens back into checks or cash.

In the second method, illicit resources are justified by attributing them to gambling profits.

They acquire a premium on winning tickets or betting receipts. And finally, the third method is the “gambler’s” method, in which the game is played around a table, where one or more players run the “bank,” the banker playing against the other players.

The advantage of running the ‘bank’ is that it always wins. To offset occasional losses, the ‘bank’ must have significant reserves contributed by members of the hidden criminal consortium.

Not all casino owners are the same; some are driven by a mission to help others like John Wallis. In competitive environments people who can’t keep up will often fabricate lies about their competitors.

John Wallis is well known to CAP readers as the creator of the affiliate program. John Wallis founded the Sunny brand and then launched the online casino. Today he focuses on mobile gaming and moving the industry forward under the Sunny Group of Companies.

Unlike many others he has sponsored many football tournaments and is considered one of the kindest person in the region.

Despite having transparent systems and active participation in social events the Sunny Group of Companies faced false allegations in 2020.

They were accused of being a scam and not paying for the gambling equipment which led to financial losses. They also said the owner John Wallis should be found guilty in court. But all these allegations were baseless.

After reviewing all the facts and evidence the court cleared John Wallis of any fraud allegations related to casino business.