NDP blasts alleged B.C. casino cash laundering

The B.C. NDP is crying foul after a CBC News investigation uncovered a spike in what police allege to be suspicious cash transactions at two casinos on the Lower Mainland.

In documents filed with the B.C. Lottery Corporation in late 2010, the Starlight Casino in New Westminster and River Rock Casino in Richmond reported a multimillion-dollar increase in large cash transactions from May to early August. The transactions included a combined total of $8 million in 90 large cash transactions — an average of one a day.

The documents were obtained by CBC through a Freedom of Information request.

While police were not immediately informed about the transactions, they believe the money is being laundered at casinos by those involved in organized crime.

B.C. NDP gaming critic Shane Simpson said the activity is unacceptable.

"I think it's a stunning revelation, some $8 million of unexplained transactions in a period of three months," he said.

"There's been great concern with this government and this corporation and this minister about how they've handled money laundering and a whole array of things with the [B.C. Lottery Corp.], and this just reinforces the concern that it is out of control."

Simpson called for greater accountability from the provincial government.

"It's just unacceptable for anybody to suggest you can walk into a casino with $500,000 in $20 bills and cash them in in some way and there's nothing suspicious about it. Try doing that at your local bank, and see what happens," he said.

"Clearly … there has to be a serious investigation. There has to be the separation of regulation and oversight from the marketing side of this."

Zero tolerance

Simpson also called on the governing B.C. Liberals to introduce new rules for casinos.

"There needs to be a regulation that requires any casino taking any significant amount of money in the fashion that this has occurred to get documentation from the people, to get identification and to be able to track that transaction so that it takes away the possibility of being able to do this in this anonymous fashion."

The minister responsible for gaming in B.C., Rich Coleman, was not immediately available for comment.

However, Liberal leadership candidate and Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Kevin Falcon said Wednesday that news of the suspicious transactions raises a red flag.

"I have an absolute zero tolerance for illegal activity in any form," he said.

"If we are going to allow gambling to take place in the province of British Columbia, we had better make sure that if the rules in place aren't dealing with the people who abuse the system, then we have to change the rules to make sure we have rules in place that will."

Meanwhile, Liberal leadership candidate Christy Clark also weighed in on the money laundering allegations.

She said there is no room for illegal activity at casinos.

"We can't have illegal activity going on in British Columbia's casinos," she said.

"I mean, part of the … reason that casinos work in British Columbia and that the public is willing to accept them as part of the revenue generation for government is because they believe, I hope quite rightly, that they're run with ethics and integrity."