British Columbia plans to crack down on money laundering at casinos. We hope the government’s heart is truly in its task, given that total government revenues from commercial gambling in 2013-14 totalled $1.17 billion.
The move is long overdue. The government has made it easier for organized crime to use B.C. casinos for money laundering and loan-sharking since it ditched the gambling-crime investigative task force seven years ago.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong said Monday 22 officers with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit will be dedicated to investigating groups that use gaming facilities to legalize proceeds of crime.
He said police will work with the B.C. Lottery Corp. and the Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch as part of the Illegal Gaming Investigation Team.
One of the challenges of being a criminal with wads of illegal money is how to make all that dirty cash seem legitimate. No problem — bring in $8,000 or $9,000 from drug deals and use it to buy gambling chips. Make a few small bets, then cash in your chips. You get a casino cheque that indicates your money is legal winnings from gambling.
In a case reported in 2011, one man didn’t even bother making a show of gambling. He came into a New Westminster casino to turn in $1.2 million worth of chips. He took the money in cash, telling the casino staff he was boarding a flight and was worried the money might look suspicious. He was given a letter confirming that the cash was a casino payout.
Under Canadian law, any cash transaction larger than $10,000 — whether at a bank, currency exchange or casino — must be reported to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada.
Agencies are also required to send a suspicious-transaction report whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe a transaction is related to money laundering or terrorist financing.
In 2014, the CBC, analyzing 500 reports of suspicious transactions, found that over a three-month period, gamblers in four Lower Mainland casinos brought in bags of $20 bills that added up to millions of dollars.
Some people showed up with plastic or paper bags filled with wads of twenties held together by rubber bands. One person came into a casino with $49,900 in various bills wrapped in rubber bands. A few weeks later, another person came in with $100,000 in $20 bills, the favoured denomination for street-level drug deals.
These transactions were dutifully reported, but police were rarely, if ever, contacted. Despite all the suspicious activity at casinos over the years, few charges have resulted.
In 2008-09, the gaming enforcement branch launched 877 investigations into suspected counterfeiting, money laundering and loan-sharking. Not one charge was laid.
The specialized police unit created in 2004 to help fight gambling-related crime was disbanded in 2009. Rich Coleman, then minister responsible for the B.C. Lottery Corporation, said the team “just, frankly, didn’t work.”
Well, this time make it work. Give it the resources and powers needed to investigate and arrest.
“British Columbians that attend our casino and gaming establishments do so in the knowledge that they are participating in a lawful form of entertainment,” says de Jong. “They want to know and deserve to know that the people sitting at the tables with them are doing so on the same basis.”
Perhaps de Jong should step back and leave the matter to Mike Morris, solicitor general and public safety minister. This is a job for someone whose responsibility is to fight crime, not someone whose job involves keeping an eye on the billion dollars in gambling revenues the government brings in each year.
