Lottery Corp. reveals details behind $700K in 2010 fines

After a decade-long court battle, the B.C. Lottery Corp. has revealed why it was fined close to $700,000 for violating the law against money laundering.

In 2010, Canada’s money laundering watchdog Fintrac fined BCLC after conducting on-site reviews of six B.C. casinos in late 2009.

BCLC appealed the $695,750 penalty and the Federal Court set it aside in 2017.

The court issued confidentiality orders in 2012 and 2014 barring the release of records related to the appeal.

Now, BCLC has revealed that Fintrac found seven deficiencies in its oversight of casinos.

BCLC said in an emailed statement that it began working to change the 2012 confidentiality order in February so it could provide documents for the B.C. money laundering inquiry led by Justice Austin Cullen.

BCLC provided Postmedia News with 40 pages of the records.

Fintrac said interviews with cage staff at casinos revealed that, with the exception of slot jackpots, “little or no verification of client gaming activity was taking place — particularly for transactions that had been identified as high risk.”

Fintrac also found nine instances where staff didn’t ask to see IDs of clients who accumulated buyins equal to or greater than $10,000 within a 24-hour period.

Also, after reviewing 1,577 large cash transactions from Jan. 1 to Oct. 15, 2009, Fintrac identified 165 reports that were filed later than the 15-day deadline.

Casinos were also late in reporting single large casino disbursements between Sept. 28 and Oct. 15, 2009, according to Fintrac.