VIC: Welfare cheats in casino high roll on the dole
18 Nov 2008 3:16 AMMELBOURNE, Nov 18 AAP - Welfare cheats are gambling millions of dollars in Australia's casinos, a Centrelink investigation has found.
One Victorian man receiving224 a week on the dole spent $12.9 million at Melbourne's Crown Casino - about160,000 a week.
The Herald Sun newspaper reports that Centrelink matched its files with casino records handed over under anti-money-laundering laws and found 2,300 pensioners and dole recipients had spent at least50,000 each on casino chips from May 2006 to November 2007.
Of those, 30 welfare recipients, including nine Victorians, spent more than1 million each over the period.
Police are investigating whether the high-roller welfare recipients are laundering money for crime syndicates, the newspaper said.
More than 820 Victorian welfare cheats were caught, more than in any other state, with almost everyone betting at Crown Casino. Their Centrelink benefits have been frozen and they have been asked to explain their gambling, the report said.
A similar operation in 2005-06 uncovered 319 welfare recipients who gambled between100,000 and $4.6 million. Information gained in that operation has saved taxpayers3.5 million in the years since.
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