At B.C.’s Cullen Commission on Thursday, Jim Lightbody was questioned about decisions to increase the Lottery Corp.’s revenue via mostly wealthy Chinese nationals after he became aware in 2011 that the RCMP and provincial gaming regulator suspected that high rollers were buying casino chips with bags of $20 bills loaned to them by Asian gangs.
Lightbody said the Lottery Corp. did not consider refusing cash with unknown origins or asking high rollers to declare their source of funds, or putting a $10,000 limit on “buy-ins” in $20-bill denominations. That’s what the branch urged the Lottery Corp. to do from 2010 to 2014, the inquiry has heard.
“Wasn’t the obvious question not how (VIPs from China) made their money, but where did the $200,000 in $20s in a grocery bag that they just put on the counter come from?” McGowan asked.
Lightbody said he believed asking Chinese VIPs to declare their source of funds would have impacted Lottery Corp. revenue.
No comments:
Post a Comment