By Tom Fletcher

VICTORIA - The provincial and federal governments are checking into reports that BC casinos are being used to launder large amounts of money by people posing aas high-rolling gamblers.

CBC News reported last week that its reporters were able to go into casinos, feed thougsands of dollars in cash in slot machines, then exchange the credits for a casino cheque after little or no actual gambling.

Provincial and federal laws require that suspicious transactions be reported to provincial gaming enforcement officials and the federal agency responsible for policing financial transactions. Documents released under freedom of information legislation showed that suspicious incidents were reported by casino staff, but many of those did not end up being reported to Ottawa as the law reuqires.

In question period at the BC legislature Thursday, NDP critics grilled Public Safety Minister John van Dongen on the issue. Delta North MLA Guy Gentner asked why Ontario casinos reported suspicious transactions totalling more than $15 million in 2006, while BC reports the same year totalled only $60,000.

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