A new report by the CBC has revealed that casinos in British Columbia often fail to perform background checks on players who are gambling with large sums of money. This is a shocking discovery, as failure to complete background checks allows criminals to launder money through casinos.
According to newly released police reports, many casinos across the province do not check the backgrounds of individuals who are cashing out a lot of money. In one Burnaby casino, 27 cases of ‘large cash transactions’ had taken place and one-third of them had ‘insufficient details’.
When completing large cash transactions, players must provide their names occupation and other personal details. However, many players across BC were able to identify themselves as general business owners or being self-employed. According to the Crime Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act, this is a violation and players must provide concrete details.
A spokesperson for the British Columbia Lottery Corporation as defended its employees. He has stated that it is only their job to collect the details – not to check them. However, gambling critics are not convinced. They hope to that the government will conduct an audit of BCLC, examining exactly how many times the commission has breached the rules.
