Canadian casinos are not having the greatest week, dealing with allegations of money laundering and the unauthorized public release of private customer data.
On Tuesday, British Columbia authorities announced the arrest of nine suspects in a widespread criminal enterprise that allegedly laundered millions of dollars through local casinos. Police have yet to indicate which casinos are involved but did say that none of the arrested suspects are casino employees.
The criminal gang, which reportedly has links to mainland China and other countries, stands accused of everything from money laundering to extortion to loan sharking to operating its own illegal gambling operations. The arrests followed a lengthy investigation that began in May 2016.
BC Gaming Industry Association exec director Peter Goudron expressed surprise at the scale of the money laundering allegations, telling the Vancouver Sun that “given the robust [anti-money laundering] procedures in place at BC casinos we are unaware how this could have taken place.”