Testimony is continuing in the investigation of money laundering at casinos run by the British Columbia Lottery Corp. (BCLC). The investigation is being led by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen.
Last week BCLC President Jim Lightbody testified that the company did everything it could to fight the risk of money laundering.
He said he was “blown away” when he first heard about the extent of the problem during a briefing by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who provided evidence that organized crime groups used casinos to launder money.
Lightbody testified that the casinos allowed some players to make large money buy-ins because some of them, particularly players from China, don’t like using checks or credit accounts, and China frowns on residents taking large amounts of money out of the country. Before 2015, it wasn’t uncommon for such “whales” to bring in bags of cash with hundreds of thousands in $20 bills.
Lightbody said the government adopted tighter controls in 2015, but also included stepped up monitoring and banning some players. It also required some players to disclose their source of cash. It took three years for the stricter ban on cash buy-ins larger than $10,000 were put in place.
Also testifying during the inquiry was former BCLC Vice President Robert Kroeker who was visibly emotional when he described how he was fired as vice president of corporate compliance over the issue in 2019.
The former Mountie explained what the Crown corporation did about illegal cash in casinos on his watch. His voice cracked when describing how allegations that BCLC did nothing to fight money laundering affected him.
“It’s been devastating, not being able to respond, particularly when I was at the corporation, and especially for my team,” he said. “They’re professionals and to see them continually attacked and maligned, it’s really unfair.”
Last year former gaming investigator Larry Vander Graaf told the commission last year that the BCLC was slow in reacting to protect the integrity of its casinos from the mob during this period. He testified that large amounts of suspicious cash began to circulate at casinos between 2007 and 2010.
Kroeker said he was briefed on the illegal cash transactions on his first day on the job in 2015, but that lottery officials didn’t appear to be overly concerned about it when police brought it to their attention.
He has also testified that B.C. Attorney General David Eby, who has become very prominent in calling for a crackdown on illegal money not only in B.C. but nationally was uninterested in the issue when he first took office.
In a separate development, BCLC has urged the national government in Ottawa to pass legislation that would legalize single event sports bets.
Residents in B.C. currently can cross into Washington State to make sports wagers. If the bill currently being discussed in the Canadian parliament passes, BCLC would be able to take wagers on its PlayNow.com website, the only regulated online gaming site in the province.
Stewart Groumoutis, BCLC’s director of eGaming, issued a statement saying, “Our players have wanted single-event sports betting for a long time. For example, this weekend is the Super Bowl and our players want to be able to simply bet on the winner, which they are unable to do under the current legislation.”
BCLC anticipates single-event sports wagers could generate up to $175 million additional revenue annually.
