Serious compliance failures at British Columbia gambling companies

Questions are being asked by the official Opposition in the Canadian Province of British Columbia following an annual report from the Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch that flags a shocking 735 percent year-on-year rise in gambling regulatory breaches at the province’s land and online gambling venues.

The provincial government’s Ministry of Finance has yet to explain the unprecedented increase in contraventions across the provincial estate of land and online casinos, racetracks, lotteries and bingo halls, although Finance Minister Mike de Jong has said that he is obtaining more details on the issue.

3,215 violations of the Gaming Control Act were recorded in the year ended March 31 2016, compared with the same period in the preceding year, when just 385 transgressions were noted.

Conversely, it has emerged in press reports that despite the dramatic rise in regulatory breaches, the number of cases referred to criminal prosecutors in the province has decreased from 37 to none.

Related and similar