The impressive building in Canada, the Parq Vancouver building, hosts two luxury hotels, a restaurant, and a casino. After its establishment with a year and a half, the casino seems to be in big trouble. It appears that instead of doing what most casinos open up shop to do, which is making money, it is in fact, losing money. The casino has posted its losses that amounted to $108 million, including $17.7 million in operating losses. It didn’t start like this, as once it opened, it seemed to have a bright future ahead of it, with profits of 28.3 million in 2017, but it seems that 2018 is a different story.
According to the management, it has been a result of the new regulations of British Columbia. Johnathan Goldman, the CEO of Parq Vancouver casino, stated that business is much slower than it should be, as a result of the new implementation of the anti-money laundering laws and regulations by the government of British Columbia. He added that these new regulations hurt the gaming industry in BC.
British Columbia’s Anti Money Laundering Initiatives
British Columbia announced last January a wave of new regulations to tackle the issue of money-laundering in casinos. One of the new rules is proof of funds; these checks aim to stop criminals from laundering their money through the casinos. Therefore, players will have to provide evidence of funding source when making deposits more than 10,000 dollars. The new regulations have been a headache for Parq Vancouver, as was seen in previous news that Canadian rapper and artist, Drake, claimed that the casino prevented him from playing because of racial profiling. On the other hand, the casino claimed that he refused to co-operate with the funding source check.