{"id":157027,"date":"2020-12-01T09:25:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T17:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=157027"},"modified":"2020-12-01T10:44:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T18:44:38","slug":"quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec to Investigate \u2018Mafia VIP\u2019 Claims at Casino de Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Quebec\u2019s finance minister has ordered a third-party investigation into possible money laundering at the province\u2019s casinos.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_157030\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-157030\" data-style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-157030 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg\" alt=\"Quebec money laundering\" width=\"1024\" height=\"819\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2-142x114.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2-768x614.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-157030\"class=\"text-description\">Reputed Montreal Mafia boss Stefano Sollecito, seen here, was allegedly among the Casino de Montreal\u2019s top ten VIP players. (Image: Archyde)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The move comes days after domestic media reports alleged Mafia leaders had received VIP comps at the province-owned Casino de Montreal. These included tickets to shows, meals, and free hotel rooms.<\/p>\n<p>According to Quebecois French-language news channel TVA, reputed Montreal mob boss Stefano Sollecito was listed among the top ten players at Casino de Montreal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p><strong>Sollecito is believed to have gambled $2.5 million at the casino in 2014 and 2015. At the time, he had recently been released from prison on racketeering and cocaine trafficking charges and declared around $50,000 in income tax.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Journal de Montreal<\/em> accused the casino of rolling out the \u201ctapis rouge\u201d (red carpet) to at least four other gangsters from factions of the local Mafia or biker gangs.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Loto-Qu\u00e9bec Tepid Response<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Loto-Qu\u00e9bec, the public corporation that owns the casino, said in an official statement that it takes \u201call the means at our disposal to avoid the presence of organized crime in the casinos.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But it added the casino was a \u201cpublic space\u201d accessible to anyone over 18, and that it cannot \u201cprevent individuals or groups of people from entering.\u201d Any customer that wants to join the VIP scheme is free to do so, it said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But Finance Minister Eric Girard said an independent audit will investigate potential money laundering and criminal activity. It will focus on the loyalty program to ensure it\u2019s not rewarding those who receive cash from illegal activity.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>BC Tip of the Iceberg?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Up to now, British Columbia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bags-stuffed-with-cash-at-bc-casinos-was-asian-cultural-quirk-claimed-regulator\/\">has been the focus<\/a> of Canada\u2019s dirty money scandal. There, the Cullen Commission is trying to establish whether the previous provincial government and the BC Lottery Corp purposefully ignored a rampant casino money laundering problem to maximize gaming revenues for the province.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p><strong>It is believed that organized crime with links to the fentanyl trade that has killed thousands of British Columbians was allowed to launder billions in drug money through the province\u2019s casino and real-estate markets.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-calls-for-canada-wide-probe-to-establish-extent-of-money-laundering\/\">May 2019 report<\/a> by the BC government\u2019s Expert Panel on Money Laundering in BC Real Estate suggested BC could just be the tip of the iceberg. The panel concluded that $7 billion was laundered in BC in 2018 due to weak laws and inadequate oversight. But as much as $47 billion may have been washed through the entire country during the same period.<\/p>\n<p>The panel called for a nationwide federal probe into the money laundering problem, a suggestion that was rebuffed by Bill Blair, Canada\u2019s federal minister for organized crime reduction.<\/p>\n<p>This, despite Canada\u2019s abysmal success rate for money laundering prosecutions. According to Statistics Canada\u2019s Integrated Criminal Court Survey, some 86 percent of all money laundering charges between 2012 and 2017 were thrown out before trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quebec\u2019s finance minister has ordered a third-party investigation into possible money laundering at the province\u2019s casinos. The move comes days after domestic media reports alleged Mafia leaders had received VIP comps at the province-owned Casino de Montreal. These included tickets to shows, meals, and free hotel rooms. According to Quebecois French-language news channel TVA, reputed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":157030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Quebec to Investigate \u2018Mafia VIP\u2019 Claims at Casino de Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Casino de Montreal Quebec to probed over reports of Mafia money laundering by gangsters through its IP system., says Quebec finance minister\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Quebec to Investigate \u2018Mafia VIP\u2019 Claims at Casino de Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Casino de Montreal Quebec to probed over reports of Mafia money laundering by gangsters through its IP system., says Quebec finance minister\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-01T17:25:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-01T18:44:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"819\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/\",\"name\":\"Quebec to Investigate \u2018Mafia VIP\u2019 Claims at Casino de Montreal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-01T17:25:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-01T18:44:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Casino de Montreal Quebec to probed over reports of Mafia money laundering by gangsters through its IP system., says Quebec finance minister\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":819,\"caption\":\"Reputed Montreal Mafia boss Stefano Sollecito was allegedly among the Casino de Montreal\u2019s top ten VIP players. (Image: Archyde)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Quebec to Investigate \u2018Mafia VIP\u2019 Claims at Casino de Montreal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Quebec to Investigate \u2018Mafia VIP\u2019 Claims at Casino de Montreal","description":"Casino de Montreal Quebec to probed over reports of Mafia money laundering by gangsters through its IP system., says Quebec finance minister","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Quebec to Investigate \u2018Mafia VIP\u2019 Claims at Casino de Montreal","og_description":"Casino de Montreal Quebec to probed over reports of Mafia money laundering by gangsters through its IP system., says Quebec finance minister","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-12-01T17:25:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-12-01T18:44:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":819,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/","name":"Quebec to Investigate \u2018Mafia VIP\u2019 Claims at Casino de Montreal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg","datePublished":"2020-12-01T17:25:54+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-01T18:44:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Casino de Montreal Quebec to probed over reports of Mafia money laundering by gangsters through its IP system., says Quebec finance minister","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/mafia2.jpg","width":1024,"height":819,"caption":"Reputed Montreal Mafia boss Stefano Sollecito was allegedly among the Casino de Montreal\u2019s top ten VIP players. (Image: Archyde)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Quebec to Investigate \u2018Mafia VIP\u2019 Claims at Casino de Montreal"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}