Casino Operator at Epicenter of B.C.'s "Vancouver Model" Scandal Fined by Ontario Regulator for Money Laundering Failures

TORONTO – Great Canadian Entertainment, the casino operator whose Richmond, British Columbia flagship sat at the epicenter of the “Vancouver Model” Chinese transnational money laundering scandal, has been ordered to pay $170,000 in monetary penalties by Ontario’s gaming regulator for failing to adequately identify, assess and monitor high-risk patrons and report suspicious activity — including potential money laundering indicators — at its Pickering Casino Resort east of Toronto.

The penalties strike at a company whose ownership and geographic footprint have shifted dramatically since the British Columbia scandal. In November 2020 — less than a year after this reporter documented a pattern of suspect cash transactions migrating from British Columbia into Ontario casinos — Great Canadian Gaming Corporation entered an agreement to be acquired by funds managed by affiliates of New York private equity giant Apollo Global Management. The roughly $3.3 billion transaction closed in September 2021, taking the company private and rebranding the operator of Richmond’s River Rock Casino Resort as Great Canadian Entertainment, headquartered in Toronto.

It is that post-acquisition entity that Ontario’s regulator has now cited for anti-money-laundering failures in the Greater Toronto Area.