Victoria urged to reinstate special casino police team
An anti- gambling- expansion group is calling on the provincial government to reinstate a specialized police unit following news that there are a large number of dodgy transactions being reported by government-licensed casinos.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Mike de Jong acknowledged that reports of suspicious transactions at casinos have more than doubled since a 2011 government audit identified lax rules in how B. C. Lottery Corporation reports possible money laundering.
The group, Vancouver Not Vegas, wants Premier Christy Clark to reinstate the Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement Team, which was dismantled in 2009, three months after it wrote a report warning that organized crime was involved in laundering money through casinos.
“This is a complete systemic collapse of governance,” said Sandy Garossino, a spokesperson for Vancouver Not Vegas, adding there has been no specialized policing presence in casinos for five years.
The provincial government has yet to respond to the group’s call for more enforcement.
Since 2011, BCLC and the province’s gaming policy and enforcement branch have tightened up how they report and deal with large transactions at casinos.
In 2011, the branch forwarded 459 suspicious transactions to police for investigation. By 2013, that number had jumped to 1,013.
De Jong told The Vancouver Sun on Thursday that he is unhappy with the continuing perception that B. C.’ s casinos are a haven for money launderers.
The acknowledgment came after CTV reported that none of the 1,013 suspicious cases reported to the RCMP last year resulted in charges. Citing confidential documents , it reported several cases in which individuals brought hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash into Great Canadian Gaming’s River Rock Casino in Richmond.
In 2011, when Vancouver Not Vegas was fighting against plans for a massive casino at BC Place, the group sent a letter to council arguing that it is well known that organized criminals and gang members frequent casinos, and use them to launder money, or use them as sites for the operation of loan- sharking and prostitution.
The letter stated that the province is lacking enforcement at casinos and racetracks.
The renewed attention on potential criminal activity in the province’s casinos comes a year after BCLC was accused of under- reporting large cash transactions.
An audit by the gaming enforcement branch in 2012 found that for the prior three years BCLC had not complied with rules issued by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. Fintrac requires reporting of smaller, repeat transactions that cumulatively make up more than the $ 10,000 threshold for reporting.