Casino operator Great Canadian Gaming Corp is pushing back against media reports of rampant money laundering activity at its River Rock Casino Resort in Vancouver.
On Monday, Great Canadian issued a statement in response to a flood of media reports over the past month regarding allegations of shoddy anti-money laundering practices at River Rock, which were revealed via the publication of a long-buried government report into British Columbia casinos’ willingness to accept chip purchases worth millions of dollars from Chinese VIP gamblers bearing sacks of $20 bills.
The latest revelations came on Friday, when the Vancouver Sun reported that Great Canadian execs had met with managers at the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) – which oversees gaming operations in the province but contracts out day-to-day casino management to companies like Great Canadian – in 2014 regarding a VIP’s chip purchase using $645k in small bills.
The discussion revolved around the VIP’s use of unsourced cash and $5k chips provided to the VIP via casino parking lot deliveries from suspected criminal elements. The discussion also revealed that ‘large amounts’ of $5k chips purchased from River Rock had ‘gone missing.’