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Baldwin and fellow casino entrepreneur Shawn Scott arrived in Laos in 2007 with ambitious plans to build a casino business aimed partly at customers crossing the country’s borders.
The pair established Sanum Investments and partnered with Laotian conglomerate ST Group. Baldwin later testified that the investors initially committed around $7.5 million to the venture, which envisaged two casino resorts and several slot clubs.
Their biggest success was Savan Vegas, strategically located near the Friendship Bridge linking Laos with neighboring Thailand across the Mekong River. A planned second resort, Paksong Vegas, was never built.
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Rovito was among 22 people indicted in April in a federal case involving an alleged illegal gambling operation in northwest Indiana.
Prosecutors charged him with operating an illegal gambling business and conspiracy to collect extensions of credit by extortionate means. The indictment alleges that the operation involved sports betting and the collection of gambling debts.
Rovito has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. His attorney has disputed the government’s allegations, claiming that the indictment does not allege his client collected money, made any threats, or directed other defendants to do so.
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FATF released the report – Risks of Gaming and Gambling – on Wednesday. It updates the body’s 2009 analysis of the casino sector. In addition, it draws on questionnaire responses from 80 jurisdictions and written comments from a further 29, alongside industry consultation.
The report identifies land-based and online casinos and sports betting as carrying the highest money laundering exposure. By contrast, lotteries and scratchcards present lower risk.
It finds that online gaming shows more documented terrorist financing activity than gambling, although proliferation financing risks remain limited across both sectors.