Editorial: Get gangsters out of casinos,

Organized crime has reached into B.C. casinos, and the provincial government is trying to root it out. International crime groups are so successful at laundering their money through the province’s gaming establishments that one intelligence organization has labelled it “the Vancouver model.” That is not the kind of notoriety we want associated with our largest city.

On Tuesday, the government released two interim recommendations by Peter German, appointed by Attorney General David Eby as an independent reviewer into allegations of money laundering in B.C. casinos. Eby has told the B.C. Lottery Corporation and the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch to implement the recommendations as soon as possible.

While Eby said he could not release details because he had to protect continuing police investigations, he said that the things he learned at a briefing on the situation stunned him.

“One of the members of the public service said: ‘Get ready. I think we are going to blow your mind.’ While I cannot share all of the details, I can advise you that the briefing outlined for me allegations of serious, large-scale, transnational laundering of the proceeds of crime in British Columbia casinos,” Eby said.

The first of German’s recommendations is to require gamblers to declare the source of the money when they deposit $10,000 or more. The second is to have gaming enforcement investigators at the large, high-volume casinos at all times, where gamblers can see them.

Under the first recommendation, customers will have to fill out a document called a Source of Funds Declaration.

A government statement said: “At a minimum, the declaration must outline a customer’s identification and provide the source of their funds, including the financial institution and account from which the cash or bond was sourced. After two consecutive transactions, cash can only be accepted from the customer once it has been determined that it is not of a suspicious or illegal nature.”

The goal is to tighten up a “lax attitude” toward regulating casinos that Eby blamed on the previous B.C. Liberal government.

The lax attitude is not surprising. Casinos, like all forms of gambling in B.C., are as addictive for governments as they are for many gamblers.

Unlike ordinary players, however, the government always walks away from the table with money in its pocket. Lots of money.

In 2016-17, gaming in B.C. raked in $3.1 billion in revenue, of which $1.39 billion went to the government. About $900 million of that wound up in general revenues. Community groups got another $135 million in grants, local governments received another $108 million and the rest went to a variety of other purposes.

The attorney general pointed out that the former government stopped funding a police unit that looked into illegal gambling, after that unit raised red flags about organized crime creeping into casinos. Regardless of the reasons for that decision, B.C. needs more, not less, police resources dedicated to uncovering money laundering.

Governments must not be so blinded by the dollars flooding into provincial coffers that they ignore the tentacles of organized crime slithering into casinos. Criminals are clever at exploiting weaknesses in systems and people. Police need staff and resources to keep up with the innovations of crooks who are adept at getting around barriers that are designed to keep them out.

Gambling is not going away, because governments have woven its revenues into so many areas of public service and community work. With revenue comes expenses, and one of the expenses is vigilance.

As long as we have casinos, the province must make it a priority to root out the criminals who use gambling facilities to launder their cash.