British Columbia River Rock Casino Under Investigation for Money Laundering

River Rock Casino is being investigated for money laundering. The BCLC, regulating body in British Columbia, has also come under fire.

River Rock Casino is accused of money laundering by the Canadian federal government.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Far up the Pacific Northwest and across the border, British Columbia River Rock Casino is being accused of routine money laundering by the federal government.

Substantial evidence was found to incriminate the casino for AML (anti-money laundering) in a report published in 2016; a report which seems to have been intentionally ignored or buried by the then provincial government.

Last Friday, on the 22nd of September, Attorney General David Eby finally published a report that was meant to come out last year. Said report was publicly funded.

Eby has now appointed a special investigator to look into why the report was buried in the first place. The entire issue is now being linked to the wider spread problem of money laundering in BC casinos.

River Rock, one of the top land-casinos in Canada, and its finances were investigated by the 2016 report. The report looked at the casino’s records between 2013-2015 and shows how players were allowed to make huge cash buy-ins of over $500,000 without having to provide documents of where they got the money from.

In July 2015 alone, the casino accepted $13.5 million in $20 bills – widely known by police for their use in the drug-world. By law, all entities are required to file reports on any cash transactions over the amount of $10,000.

River Rock filed a mere 1,194 reports of suspicious transactions, as opposed to the actual amount of 41,187 suspicious transactions.

River Rock is known for having many high-roller VIP gamblers come in from China. It has been implied that these high-rollers are giving huge buy-ins to the casino so that they can ‘wash’ their money from its criminal ties.

Eby also wants to look into how such consistent transgressions were allowed to occur under the supposedly watchful eye of the BCLC – the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.

As explained by this article, the BCLC is one of five corporations that control Canadian lotteries in the country. The federal government has often come to a head with the BCLC and the other four corporations over regulations concerning gambling and casinos.

CEO Jim Lightbody had this to say in light of the recent unfolding of events: “We take our responsibility to manage gaming in our province very seriously and always welcome the opportunity to improve our practices.”

Source: Salem-News.com Special Features Dept.