The Bicycle Hotel and Casino has agreed to pay $500,000 in fines and revamp its anti-money laundering protocols, as part of a nonprosecution settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
The casino from Bell Gardens, which has been operating since 1984 and specialises in card games like poker, baccarat and pay now, was found to be in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act after looking the other way on a suspicious gambler.
The gambler in the case, who often conducted millions of dollars in cash transactions in 2016, would bring duffle bags totalling up to $100m for marathon gambling sessions.
All casinos must file a currency-transaction report every time a gambler purchases more than $10,000 in chips using cash; the investigation, however, discovered that the casino filed the currency-transaction form in the name of the gambler’s assistant, which is illegal.
The months-long session began around 7 January 2012 and continued through 27 July 2017, and the casino failed to file any suspicious-activity reports, which is also illegal.
The customer, who is listed only as “Chinese national”, gambled at Bicycle about 100 times in the eight-month period and played high-limit baccarat in a VIP room with massive amounts of cash.
The casino accepted responsibility and cooperated with the authorities, thus it got away with paying a $500,000 fine to avoid prosecution for its involvement in potential money laundering.
This is not the first time Bicycle Casino has faced legal issues, as an investigation from 1990 conducted by the US Drug Enforcement Agency and the IRS determined the casino was built in part with drug money.
