Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp (CEC) has agreed to pay $9.5m to resolve a federal money laundering investigation into high-roller activity at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

On Tuesday, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced that Desert Palace, which does business as Caesars Palace, had agreed to pay $8m to resolve an investigation into “severely deficient” anti-money laundering (AML) protocols at the Vegas casino. The Nevada Gaming Control Board piled on, announcing that it would impose an additional $1.5m penalty on Caesars for making the state look bad.

FinCEN claimed Caesars had willfully and repeatedly violated the Bank Secrecy Act by allowing high-rollers – many of whom were from Asia – to gamble anonymously in Caesars Palace’s private VIP gaming rooms. Caesars also “allowed a blind spot” to develop in its AML compliance by failing to monitor large wire transfers made by international marketing agencies (aka junket operators) on behalf of these high-rollers.

FinCEN director Jennifer Shasky Calvery said Caesars “knew its customers well enough to entice them to cross the world to gamble and to cater to their every need … Every business wants to impress its customers, but that cannot come at the risk of introducing illicit money into the US financial system.”