Dealers turn to pokies, clean up
DRUG dealers are using pokies machines to launder their dirty money in plain view in Geelong’s pubs and clubs, a former ice user and trafficker has revealed.
Dain Kindred revealed drug traffickers — including himself in previous years — were feeding their ill-gotten gains into pokies machines and withdrawing “clean” cheques after playing enough games to avoid suspicion.
Mr Kindred, who this month shared his story of addiction and recovery with the Geelong Advertiser, said he was first attracted to the pokies while using ice, before learning how to launder money through the machines.
“The pokies are just associated with ice hugely because of the lights and the sounds and the endorphins,” Mr Kindred said.
“When you’re on ice and you’re bored at night because there’s nothing to do at three in the morning, and they’re open, that’s where you head.
“It’s also where dealers are putting in proceeds of their crimes. I remember at one point I looked through the photos on my phone and I counted in three weeks I had $87,000 worth of cheques from the pokies, but I had $140 to my name.
“I’d cashed them, and it was all gone. Everything was just going back into my habit or the pokies.”
Mr Kindred shared his insights into local money laundering shortly after it was revealed Geelong’s 26 pokies venues swallowed $10.87m from gamblers in January — the third largest monthly amount lost in the city’s pokies since their 1992 introduction.
Alliance for Gambling Reform executive director Tony Moore at the time said the post-pandemic lockdown losses had likely been boosted by a rise in criminals cleaning their dirty money.
“All around it’s bad news, no matter where the losses are coming from,” Mr Moore said.
Macquarie University researcher Dr June Buchanan last year described how easily criminals could “clean” money through pokies machines.
“It is quite common for ‘dirty money’ to be cleaned through electronic gaming machines in pubs and registered clubs in Australia,” Dr Buchanan said in a paper for the university.
“Essentially, money gained through illicit means is fed into pokies machines to ‘clean’ and legitimise the money.”