The British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) revealed that it has hired a third-party auditor as part of its actions to make sure that its Casino Service Providers are operating properly.
Earlier, BCLC has reiterated its commitment to help the province’s authorities to prevent illegal money laundering practices in BC casinos, so it now wants to ensure that all information regarding the source of players’ funds is recorded thoroughly and accurately.
The third-party auditor hired by the Corporation will be engaged with the monitoring of BCLC’s three busiest casinos and support their compliance with the Source of Funds declaration requirements. The latter were rolled out by the company in January this year after Dr. Peter German, the former deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), made certain recommendations in his report regarding the alleged anti-money laundering practices in Lower Mainland casinos.
The initial monitoring of the compliance of the BCLC’s Service Providers proved that additional third-party scrutiny was necessary. As mentioned above, the auditor’s oversight is to be aimed at the information gathering practices of three BCLC casinos, including River Rock Casino Resort, Parq Vancouver and Grand Villa Casino.
Players Need to Provide Source-of-Funds Declaration for CA$10,000 Transactions
The BC Lottery Corporation is trying to make sure that the three aforementioned casinos are properly gathering the necessary information regarding the source of player funds for all money transactions exceeding CA$10,000. The third-party auditor’s monitoring is set to continue until the company is satisfied with the level of compliance demonstrated by its casino service providers.
Since January 10th, 2018, all money transactions amounting to CA$10,000 and more need to be accompanied with a source of funds declaration, which is required to feature certain requisites. Depending on the situation, casino players may also be asked to provide supporting banking documentation. These changes were implemented following the findings of Dr. Peter German, whose investigation into the BC casino industry showed massive irregularities and foul money-laundering practices.
Apart from the independent third-party monitoring, the BCLC is also working in collaboration with the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch (GPEB), which oversees the overall source of funds process as part of its role of a gambling regulatory body in British Columbia.
Only recently, it became clear that the BCLC paid its investigators and their managers financial bonuses in the range from 3.6% to 9.6% at the time when alleged money-laundering practices have been taking place across the British Columbia’s Lower Mainland casinos. As Casino Reports has already revealed, the investigators and their managers received the bonuses in the four-year period from 2010 to 2014, based on certain financial targets of the Corporation, and on individual performance, too. This practice was ended in April 2014 after the province of British Columbia changed its policy to prevent such bonuses to be awarded to investigators.
