The majority of cash is presented to casino staff by “high-roller Asian VIP clients” who have travelled from China or recently immigrated from China, the report says. “Law enforcement intelligence has indicated this currency may be the direct proceeds of crime,” the MNP report states. Commissioned in 2015 by B.C.’s gaming policy enforcement branch, but not released until Postmedia filed a freedom of information request, the report focuses mostly on allegations of “unsourced cash” flowing into Richmond’s River Rock Casino.Īuditor MNP LLP explains the reasons for its report, noting that the enforcement branch “compiled a document which identified approximately $13.5 million in $20 bills being accepted in River Rock in July 2015.” That’s equivalent to a 20-storey-high stack of $20 bills, taller than the 12-storey height of the casino’s hotel building. The planned review was Eby’s response to a damaging confidential report about casinos overseen by B.C. “We will bring in the best experts available to assist us, and I am confident we will succeed,” he said in a statement. “We’ve become dependent on that revenue.”Įby said his government is “serious” about identifying money laundering activities and ensuring there are policies in place to prevent it in B.C casinos. Lottery Corporation has, in a very short time, become a behemoth in the provincial government,” she said. Garossino hopes the independent review of money-laundering controls ordered by Attorney General David Eby helps to address the problem, but she warned it would need to “rise above politics.”

“The crime comes with the industry,” she said. The co-founder of Vancouver Not Vegas said the contents of a government report, released Friday after freedom of information requests by Postmedia, are “consistent” with everything she’s learned after fighting the proliferation of casinos for more than five years.

casinos may have been used by Chinese high-rollers to launder massive wads of cash that could be “proceeds of crime” come as no surprise to Sandy Garossino.

River rock casino funding