Authorities probe a $300,000 chip cash-out between Mar del Plata and Tigre casinos in Buenos Aires province

An investigation led by judge Pablo Yadarola has turned up a suspected money-laundering move that used casino chips as the bridge: an employee of Maximiliano Palermo allegedly bought about US$300,000 in chips at the Mar del Plata casino and, days later, redeemed the same chips for cash at the Tigre casino. For PSPs and gambling operators, the detail that matters is simple: chips can be exchanged between casinos in Buenos Aires province, which creates a route that deserves scrutiny in any controls stack.

1. The probe includes more than 30 raids in the City of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires province, and Santa Fe, and it led the Buenos Aires Provincial Lottery and Casinos Institute to file a Suspicious Transaction Report (ROS) with the Financial Information Unit (UIF).
2. According to the investigation, the same chips bought in Mar del Plata were later taken to Tigre and converted back into cash. The alleged structure was reportedly made possible by the inter-casino exchangeability of chips within Buenos Aires province.
3. The case originally focused on a presumed organization that recruited compulsive gamblers and moved them to gambling venues in Las Vegas, United States. In that file, journalist Quique Felman and former footballers Sergio Berti, José “Turu” Flores, Sergio Zárate, and Norberto Ortega Sánchez appear as alleged victims.
4. Yadarola has recently been promoted to the Buenos Aires Federal Chamber and has passed the investigation to prosecutor Emilio Guerberoff, who will continue the measures aimed at determining how the organization operated and where the funds under suspicion came from.
5. During the raids, Federal Police seized cash, watches, and passports, all of which were added to the case evidence.