<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/28/proceeds-of-gambling-firms-keep-millions-when-australians-steal-to-fund-addiction>
"In 2018 a 27-year-old Tasmanian assistant financial accountant was convicted
of multiple counts of fraud after stealing $292,955, most of it from his
employer. The court heard the man had committed the fraud to fund a gambling
addiction, pouring the stolen money into a Sportsbet account, whereupon he lost
it all. He was sentenced to jail and was issued with compensation orders,
despite being deeply in debt.
Sportsbet kept the money.
In 2021 a 48-year-old Tasmanian woman faced court after stealing $940,221 from
the veterinary practice where she worked, and accruing a debt of $24,218 on a
fraudulently obtained credit card. She had been diagnosed with a gambling
disorder “at the most extreme end” and spent most of the money playing a social
casino game, Heart of Vegas, owned by Aristocrat Leisure, Australia’s largest
poker machine manufacturer. She played the game through Facebook, which took a
30% cut of every transaction. She was convicted of 26 counts of fraud and
ordered to compensate the companies she stole from, despite the court noting
she was already in debt and unlikely to be able to repay them.
Aristocrat and Facebook kept the money.
In September Gavin Fineff, a former Sydney financial adviser pleaded guilty to
multiple fraud-related offences in the NSW district court. Fineff lost more
than $8m to sports gambling, much of it belonging to his clients and friends,
some of them elderly and vulnerable.
The victims of his crimes never got their money back. Fineff will be sentenced
in January."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
