June 7 (Reuters) - SkyCity Entertainment Group on Monday said Australia's financial crime regulator had launched an investigation into possible breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws at the firm's operation in Adelaide.

SkyCity Adelaide, the Auckland-based company's only property outside New Zealand, generates about a sixth of its pre-tax profit.

The casino operator said the potential breaches found by the regulator, AUSTRAC, included concerns relating to ongoing customer due diligence and its maintenance of its compliance programme.

The shortfalls were found during an assessment conducted by AUSTRAC in 2019, which focused on SkyCity Adelaide's management of customers identified as high risk and politically exposed, between July 2015 to June 2016 and July 2018 to June 2019, SkyCity said. It did not elaborate.

An AUSTRAC spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

The entertainment company said AUSTRAC's enforcement team had begun a formal investigation and the regulator had not yet decided on whether enforcement action would be taken. SkyCity said it would fully cooperate with the regulator on its investigation.

(Reporting by Savyata Mishra and Rashmi Ashok in Bengaluru Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Sam Holmes)