Casinos have long been a favorite destination for criminal organizations looking to launder ‘dirty’ money. According to a new report commissioned by the Gaming Security Professionals of Canada, casino laws throughout the country have been effective in preventing money laundering at live and online Canadian casinos.

• Casino Money Laundering Canada Exchange Rate
• Casino Money Laundering Canada Currency
• Casino Money Laundering Canada Rules

The GSPC document, entitled “Casinos & Money Laundering Q & A”, was authored by Christine Duhaime, a criminal attorney and certified specialist in financial crimes and international anti-money laundering laws. Based on her research findings, Ms. Duhaime praised the stringent safeguards enforced by the nation’s regulators on both provincial and federal levels.

VANCOUVER - The inquiry into money laundering in B.C. Has heard the RCMP didn’t have the resources to investigate illegal activities at the province’s largest casino, while the B.C. Previously, official money laundering estimates in B.C.’s casino scandal have focused on loan sharks and gamblers using bundles of dirty cash and suspicious transactions in casino high-limit cash. Probe into loan shark 'ruffled' casino bosses, money laundering inquiry hears 2020-11-07 Champagne hints at progress in case of detained Canadians, but mum on Meng Wanzhou deal.

• The August DEA report, Money Laundering in Canada, says Canadian drug traffickers intent on using casinos to launder their proceeds begin by purchasing chips or opening an account at the gambling establishment. The trafficker gambles, but is careful to lose only a relatively small sum of money, the report notes.
• Investigators into money laundering in British Columbia said they went looking for a minnow but found a whale—or a whole group of whales, allegedly including casino high rollers. But gaming industry officials say the casinos reported the incidents as required to law.

The report details the facts and intricacies of money laundering, and its prevalent nature throughout casinos worldwide. Money laundering is defined as “a process in which so-called ‘dirty money’ from the proceeds of crime is transformed into ‘clean money’ or legitimate money or other assets…”, and is a criminal offence in Canada, as it is in most jurisdictions.

However, due to the structure of anti-money laundering protocols at live and online Canadian casinos, the practice has been sufficiently thwarted across the country. All gambling activities are supervised and regulated by provincial and federal government agencies, and “are closely regulated with respect to money laundering and terrorist financing risks,” wrote Duhaime.

Canada Casino Laws Supremely Effective

“Casinos operate within a highly regulated legal environment and are subject to the supervision of provincial government regulators as well as the oversight of the federal anti-money laundering regulator. Provincial lottery corporations, which are agents of the government created to manage gambling, establish and implement operating standards, policies and procedures to ensure the compliance by casinos with applicable laws, and in particular anti-money laundering requirements,” the report continued.

While a close approximation can be said of many governments, other jurisdictions, including the United States, don’t implement the same regulatory structure or austerity as Canada casino laws mandate.

The document confirmed that, “To date there are no known cases in Canada where a person has been arrested, charged or convicted of a money laundering offence that directly involves a casino.”

How Do They Do It?

Duhaime noted that live and online Canadian casinos have been able to prevent the gambling industry from being targeted for criminal money laundering purposes by implementing “robust countermeasures, including policies, procedures and training that allow for the detection and reporting of such transactions, which in turn deters criminals from using casinos for money laundering.”

The author went on to detail a few of those practices, describing the safeguards that have served to facilitate an effectively regulated landscape within Canada’s gambling industry.

“Virtually every transaction at a casino in Canada is video recorded, making casinos one of the highest risk locations to potential money launderers,” she said.

Canada casino laws strictly enforce “the presence of security and surveillance personnel at casinos…”, and it shows. Ms. Duhaime concluded that “the inability of criminals to complete large financial transactions anonymously with cash, chips or by converting currency or electronic funds transfers, makes Canadian casinos unattractive to would-be money launderers.”

Unregulated Online Canadian Casinos At Risk

The only gambling destinations operating in the country that are not known to effectively thwart money laundering activities are offshore online Canadian casinos, which are not regulated by a provincial government.

“Unregulated online gambling websites have not been made subject to Canada’s anti-money laundering legislation that protects consumers and the integrity of gambling,” Duhaime explained. “As a result, Canadian money laundering controls apply only to on-line gambling websites operated by a province.”

Best Overall Canadian Casino with Easy Deposits : Royal Vegas

Royal Vegas, the leading Canadian gaming brand, are really going out of their way this month and offering a very lucrative offer to prospective players. Details inside.

Related posts:

A saleswoman shows customers an Aston Martin at a luxury car dealership in Vancouver, British Columbia on October 10, 2015. Sales of expensive cars and export to China have jumped and is being tied to money laundering (Julie Gordon/Reuters)

Money laundering definition from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) : the process used to disguise the source of money or assets derived from criminal activity. There are generally three stages in the process:

• -Placement: involves placing the proceeds of crime in the financial system;
• -Layering: involves converting the proceeds of crime into another form and creating complex layers of financial transactions to disguise the audit trail and the source and ownership of funds (e.g., the buying and selling of stocks, commodities or property); and,
• -Integration: involves placing the laundered proceeds back in the economy under a veil of legitimacy. (FINTRAC)

Last year an international investigation led by Peter German, former deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, estimated that British Columbia’s casinos were being used to launder up to $1 billion annually. The report suggested the money was coming primarily from Asian crime groups who then invested in expensive Vancouver and area real estate.

B.C. Attorney General David Eby (background) and investigator Peter German at the release of German’s report, Dirty Money, in Vancouver, June 27, 2018, into money laundering at B.C casinos, German’s latest report looks at laundering through exotic car purchase and export. (Yvette Brend/CBC

Casinos- now luxury cars

Suddenly Vancouver has also become a North American hotbed for extremely expensive exotic cars.

Now investigator Peter German has found the loophole. While large scale transactions involving cash raise alarms, this has not been the case for vehicle sales, including super exotic cars where dealers are not required to report large transactions to FINTRAC.

B.C. Attorney General David Eby noted in a news conference about the findings said ,“In the luxury-car market, there is no financial reporting of large cash purchases, no oversight of international bank wire transfers and no apparent investigation or enforcement. The report also uncovered a complicated luxury-vehicle export scheme.”

Sales of exotic cars have skyrocketed in Vancouver and at other exotic dealerships elsewhere in the province. Provincial sates tax is returned to buyers if the car is not be licensed in B.C. such as if it is exported. Last year $28 million in tax was rebated to buyers who quickly exported the cars, mainly to China.(Christina Low)

Criminals use straw buyers who sometimes bring bags of cash for vehicle purchase or non-identifiable bank drafts, from small amounts of international wire transfers sent to multiple bank accounts., Perhaps surprisingly, a story in the Vancouver Sun noted that some of the so-called straw buyers were not able to speak English.

The vehicle then is turned over to the “real” buyer who may then resell to an exporter who ships it offshore, usually to China.

The Lamborghini Aventador SVJ on display at the Auto Exotica exhibit of the 2019 Canadian International AutoShow. Dealers at the show say sales have been kicked into overdrive in the last 3 years, from a few hundred to thousands, often to ‘well healed newcomers” (Philip Lee-Shanok/CBC

Casino Money Laundering Canada Exchange Rate

Adding insult to injury, once the car is sold abroad, the seller can apply for a rebate on the provincial sales tax. (PST) which on an expensive car can mean a huge sum is returned to the buyer.

Huge increase in exports and rebates given

German’s report notes that prior to 2014, PST rebates were fewer than 100. That jumped to over 700 in the following two years, then to over 3,600 in 2016. Last year the number of rebates give for luxury and exotic cars exported was over 4,400. The rebates total $85 million since 2013, with $28 million of that in 2018.

The report indicates several buyers have made multiple purchases and rebate requests.

The 300 page report is the second portion of investigator Peter German’s look into money laundering in British Columbia. Last June his “Dirty Money” report found substantial money laundering through the province’s casinos.

Video released by B.C’s attorney general shows casino customers bringing in bags of cash to one of B.C.’s casinos in an apparent act of money laundering. (B.C. attorney general)

British Columbia is now studying the report towards developing new rules, however coordination at the federal level would also be required

Casino Money Laundering Canada Currency

German’s full report will include money laundering and the real-estate market in the province.

Additional information-sources

Casino Money Laundering Canada Rules