I was the critic responsible for gaming for a couple of years in opposition before becoming the minister responsible, and I raised the issue of large cash transactions in our casinos. The answer that invariably came back, whether it was from people in the industry or whether it was from government, was that everybody was adhering and there were extensive audits and reviews of the reporting regime, and that as a result we could all have confidence that money laundering was not happening, and that the proceeds of crime, to quote the former finance minister, were not welcome in B.C. casinos. Obviously that was not the case.
I unfortunately don't know what's happening in other provinces and I can't speak to that, but I have no reason to think that criminal gangs confine themselves to metro Vancouver or that they don't share information about how things can work. However, there are some significant differences when I look at, for example, Ontario, which has a much larger police force in casinos than we did in British Columbia. We didn't even have a regulator present in the casinos outside of Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. I'm sure none of the members in this House frequents casinos, but if you've ever found yourself in a casino—as I have on social occasions—it tends not to be Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. We needed to have the regulator in place in the casino evenings and weekends, which is when this activity was taking place.
I apologize for taking all your time with this answer, but we had a pretty unique situation in B.C. in terms of a lack of regulatory presence in our casinos and a provincial government that, in my opinion, did not take the actions necessary to clamp down on this. I hope it's not the case in other provinces, but I don't know.