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The B.C. government launched the review over concerns about Chinese high-roller VIPs purchasing gambling chips with massive wads of cash that could be “proceeds of crime.”

Those concerns were outlined in a confidential report commissioned by the B.C. Lotteries Corp. from auditor MNP LLP that found $13.5 million in $20 bills had being accepted in the River Rock Casino in July 2015.

In releasing his final report at the end of June, German concluded that for many years certain Lower Mainland casinos unwittingly served as “laundromats” for the proceeds of organized crime and that laundered money was linked to drug trafficking and real estate transactions in the Lower Mainland’s heated housing market.

In response to questions on Wednesday, B.C. Attorney General David Eby made no apologies for implementing the new anti-money laundering requirements.

He noted that suspicious transactions flowing through B.C.’s casinos had dropped to $200,000 in March of this year from a high of $20 million in July 2015.

“Certainly, we recognized at the very beginning that taking action on this would result in some financial reductions,” said Eby. “And we expect all of our service providers to understand that in the name of cracking down on crime, and in the name of cracking down on money laundering, they should be prepared to see decreases in those high-stakes tables because this is an action we have to take.”

Eby said the province is encouraging casinos to focus on lower-stakes tables and stay away from high-stakes tables that will be the most affected by the anti-money laundering initiatives.