Two casino workers from Seattle must really enjoy their jobs at a Canadian casino. The women were recently arrested by Canadian police because they were caught dealing poker on the side. This is illegal for casino workers, and only adds to the growing list of problems at the River Rock Casino.
The River Rock
The River Rock Casino, located in Vancouver, is a casino resort with nearly 400 rooms, and 70,000 square feet of gaming space. The casino offers over 1000 slot machines, and 30 table games. In addition, they offer a high end poker room, with a lot of VIP gamers. The casino has recently been embroiled in a scandal with those VIP gamers, mainly from China, and accusations of money laundering. The money laundering charges have led to the arrests of Chinese nationals at the Vancouver airport, as well as arrests of VIP casino employees. So far, it appears that workers in the VIP room, as well as the people who managed junkets for high-end gamblers were involved in an extensive money laundering scheme for the drug cartels in Asia. The investigation is continuing, but the scandal has managed to rock the casino, which had revenues of over $250 million in 2016.
Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, which owns the River Rock Casino and 20 other properties in Canada and Washington state. The company’s gross revenue was $1.2 billion in 2017. The casino company has gradually expanded from the West Coast to Ontario and Nova Scotia.
The Home Casino
Two women, who live in Seattle, were arrested when the Canadian police, who were acting on a tip from angry neighbors, raided a poker house. The two casino employees were at the poker house, which was a loft over an auto-repair business. Police first did surveillance on the loft, and witnessed women who were dressed up in fancy clothes, as well as fancy cars moving in and out of the area. At first, police suspected prostitution, but later received information through tips and surveillance an illegal poker house was operating there. The illegal poker games were happening during the weekends and some evenings during the week, late at night.
When the police raided the house, they found more than $15,000 in checks and nearly $40,000 in cash. There were eleven people in the house when the police raided, and all eleven were arrested. One of the women that were arrested was playing poker, and the other was the dealer. The person who was playing insisted to the police she was a poker professional. At the time of the raid, she had $12,000 in her chip stack. The players who were arrested in the raid stated that they were told about the game from the women who were employees of the casino through a social media site that discusses online poker strategies.
Aftermath
No charges have been filed in the case so far, although the confiscated money has not been returned. The police also seized The women’s arrests were reported to the British Columbia anti-gang agency, and the province’s Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch. The GPEB regulates the casinos in the province, and act as the regulators for the casinos. While the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, which owns River Rocks Casino has not stated that the women have been fired, they did say it was a possibility. According to province law, casino workers are prohibited from working at a private game, or any other gambling enterprise for money. Because the company has already been embroiled in scandal regarding the Vancouver casino, the company may choose to let the women go in order to avoid negative press.
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