«“Millions” were allegedly laundered by China-linked gang through BC casinos

Canadian casinos have been accused of money laundering and leak of customers’ private information. It all happened on Tuesday, when authorities of British Columbia informed the media about the arrest of 9 people. They were suspected of laundering millions of dollars via several local casinos. However the police didn’t mention the casinos, involved in that case. The only thing that we know is the suspects are not casino employees.

Those 9 people seem to be accused of everything: from money laundering to operating illegal gambling business. Their arrest was the result of long investigation started in May 2016.

Peter Goudron, the executive director of BC Gaming Industry, was greatly surprised with the amount of money, which was allegedly laundered through the Association’s casinos. According to the Vancouver Sun, Goudron considers it impossible, because all the BC casinos follow the necessary anti-money laundering procedures.

In our turn, we are greatly surprised with Goudron’s perplexity. Especially if we remember that BCLC (British Columbia Lottery Corporation) has been blamed for Mr.Magoo’s approach concerning their AML responsibilities. No wonder, because this state-run company both operates and regulates gambling services.

Ironically enough, the arrest of 9 people, that happened on Tuesday, was the result of the investigation, which, in its turn, started a month after BC government’s announcement of creating the Joint Illegal Investigation Team. This Team was to replace the organization, shut down by the BC government in 2009. The reason of this replacing is BC government’s wish to reduce cost and save about C$1 million in annual costs.

Another reason why the timing of this Tuesdays’ event is so awkward, is the fact that the following week Canadian Gaming Summit is to take place. Well, it will definitely change our perception of the role of this Summit in the whole gaming industry in British Columbia.

LEAKAGE OF CASINO CUSTOMERS’ PRIVATE DATA ONLINE

In Alberta’s town Calgary management of the Cowboys Casino has announced of leakage of their customers’ private data. It was allegedly caused by some unknown hackers who not only have leaked the private information, but also are going to attack the local digital airwaves.

The casino informed the media that its own internal servers were attacked in June 2016 and the result of the hackers’ attack was the digital theft of the customers’ private data, including elite members’ gambling habits. On the whole this leakage affected about 14,000 customers and staff of this casino.

So the casino’s management informed its customers about this unpleasant event, but warned that no one can stop the hackers from opening this stolen information to the whole world.

The fact of the leakage was announced to the Pastebin service. The casino’s digital security system was accused of being absent, as if it didn’t exist at all. The casino’s authorities were reported to receive warnings about their unsatisfactory security, but this message wasn’t heard. The stolen private information was promised to get published online until the casino’s management fixed bugs in its security system.

Cowboy casino is not the only victim who suffered from the hackers. Many casinos in Canada shared its destiny. For example, last year Rama Casino, located in Ontario, became the victim of the same heist-and-post illegal procedure. In both cases hackers announced that they acted in good faith, because they exposed fails of the casinos’ security systems and made them fix these fails.