The British Columbia, Canada government recently made a five-year commitment to form the Joint Illegal Gaming Investigation Team to pursue money laundering and organized crime at the nation’s casinos. At the announcement in Vancouver, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said “suspicious cash transactions reports for the Lower Mainland as received from gaming service providers” reached 9.1 million in the last 12 months. De Jong said unlike past units, the new one “is focused directly on money laundering and suspected money laundering along with organized criminals operating within casinos in British Columbia.”
The team includes 22 law enforcement personnel from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, the province’s anti-gang agency, plus four investigators from the B.C. Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch. The B. C. Lottery Corporation will provide 70 percent of the unit’s annual $4.3 million budget.
Kevin Hackett, chief operating officer of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C., said the new investigative unit will stop a wide array of suspicious activity, including “people walking into a casino with hockey bags full of money.” He denied any conflict with having the BCLC fund the team. “Who writes the checks is no concern of mine. My concern is to build the most effective team possible to enforce and advance the laws of the country,” Hackett said.
Officials said anti-money-laundering activities already are in place at B.C. casinos, including urging patrons to debit cards, convenience checks and patron gaming fund accounts, among other non-cash alternatives; requiring casino chips only be used at a single facility; restricting chip passing on casino floors; and restricting patrons from exchanging small bills for large currency denominations.
Noted de Jong, “British Columbians that attend our casino and gaming establishments do so in the knowledge that they are participating in a lawful form of entertainment. They want to know and deserve to know that the people sitting at the tables with them are doing so on the same basis.”
