The casino recorded $323.7 million for 2018, but that was down 22.9 percent from the $420 million record high of 2014, a year before the problem was uncovered, when money-laundering was allegedly at its height.<\/p>\n
While 52 percent of its revenues came from slots in 2018, its table games generated an average of $1.7 million per table, more than any other casino in the top five.<\/p>\n
So rife was the BC money laundering problem that the international intelligence community had taken to referring the system for washing criminal proceeds through the casino VIP segment as \u201cthe Vancouver Model.\u201d<\/p>\n
We are famous internationally \u2013 or, more accurately, we have become infamous \u2013 for money laundering,\u201d BC Attorney General Eby told a federal parliamentary committee in 2018.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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How Does the Vancouver Model Work?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Vancouver Model involves the existence of \u201cunderground banks\u201d with links to the drugs trade. Chinese VIP visitors arrange to borrow money before they arrive in BC, which allows them to swerve strict controls on the movement of money out of China.<\/p>\n
Before leaving China, they agree to transfer the equivalent amount from their Chinese bank account to another account based in China.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, criminals can deposit cash earned through the sale of drugs and other crimes with the underground bank in BC. The cash is then lent to the high rollers, who covert it into chips at BC casinos. They gamble a little before receiving a check for their remaining chips from the casino.<\/p>\n
The criminals receive an equivalent payment from the Chinese bank account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Growth at British Columbia\u2019s embattled casinos has slowed considerably since the introduction of new anti-money laundering (AML) controls almost two years ago. According to data provided by Business in Vancouver, revenues for the province\u2019s biggest casinos were up by just 0.1 percent over the previous year. That\u2019s compared with growth of 4.4 percent in 2014. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":121200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
BC Casino Revenues Squeezed by New Anti-Money-Laundering Regime<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n