The Office of the Auditor General of Ontario has criticised anti-money laundering (AML) practices at casinos in the province, saying that they do not verify the source of funds of large amounts of cash.
The findings were released in the office’s 2022 Annual Report on organisations in Ontario. These included the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG).
From May 2021, OLG made it mandatory for land-based casinos to check the source of funds for all players who make single transactions of CA$100,000 (£60,747/€70,677) – however, providing proof of these source-of-funds checks was not required. Also, it is specified in OLG’s AML policies that winnings must be verified before any cheque worth more than CA$3,000 can be issued.
The lack of AML checks were discovered when, during its audit, the office found that it could obtain cheques after very little play and no casino winnings.
Low suspicious transaction reporting in Ontario
In addition, the audit revealed that the level of suspic..