California Casino Hit with $900K Fine By FinCEN

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has fined a California casino for allegedly violating anti-money-laundering regulations. This is FinCEN’s first enforcement against a casino in six years. 

This comes after Wynn Las Vegas was forced to pay $130 million to avoid federal prosecution for using unlicensed financial services to attract foreign gamblers. 

The Casino That Was Fined

The casino fined is Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino. They will have to pay out $900,000 to settle the allegations of failing to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act for more than 4.5 years. 

The violations included failing to implement and maintain effective anti-money-launder programs and failing to file currency transactions and suspicious activity reports. 

FinCEN Speaks Out

In the wake of this, FinCEN said this should serve as a reminder about the legal obligations entities must uphold. 

They also said this came from the casino’s failure from the card blub management decisions like failing to assign anyone for day-to-day compliance and a lack of procedures in place to detect suspicious transactions. 

“Lake Elsinore operated for years without the most basic AML controls, putting its customers and the U.S. financial system at risk and denying law enforcement information on suspicious activity,” said FinCEN’s Director Andrea Gacki in a press release. “This action should serve as a reminder that all financial institutions—regardless of their type or size—must comply with their obligations under the BSA and FinCEN’s regulations.”

More on Lake Elsinore

Lake Elsinore ranks 17th among the 82 cardrooms in the state in terms of the number of tables. It has 22 tables for card games like poker. 

The casino's representatives haven’t yet commented on the situation despite being contacted by publications like The Wall Street Journal.

Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino is also subject to a review of its anti-money-laundering programs.