RCMP probed card games because money laundering was too complex, ex-Mountie says

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The first officer in charge of the RCMP’s illegal gambling investigation team said he didn’t want to bite off more than he could chew by probing money laundering in B.C. casinos.

Tom Robertson, who led B.C.’s Integrated Illegal Gambling Enforcement Team for a year from its inception in late 2004, told the Cullen Commission of Inquiry Into Money Laundering that he felt his small team didn’t have the experience or resources to take on big, complex cases.

That’s why, he said, he chose to focus on illegal card games, digital slot machines, and bingo games.

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Money laundering ‘fairly complex’: ex-Mountie

“My understanding is that to investigate and prosecute someone for money laundering or illegal gaming was a fairly complex investigation [that] would tie up a number of resources for a longer period of time than offences such as a coffee shop that had some illegal video lottery terminals or a common gaming house that was running a weekly Texas hold’em [poker game],” Robertson testified on Friday.

The veteran Mountie had served nearly three decades in the RCMP when he took control of IIGET, but he had never investigated illegal gambling or money laundering, nor had anyone on his team, he said.

Smaller cases would reduce impact of mistakes: Robertson

Focusing on smaller investigations that took a few days to a week each would allow IIGET to gain experience, according to Robertson, adding that if the team made mistakes it would have a smaller impact than if they made mistakes during months-long, complex probes.

He also said the consultative board to which he reported “wanted to see some results.”

“So if we were able to take on some projects that were a couple of days to a week [and] have some success, that would look better for the unit than if I merely went to the consultative board, saying that we were still working on the same project as we were working on the last time that we met.”

A series of smaller investigations, each taking a couple weeks, would less likely lead to mistakes.

Robertson said it would "look better" if he could report a number of successful small investigations, rather than one big one with no results to report for weeks or months.

— kelvin gawley (@byGawley) November 6, 2020

The ex-Mountie said he knew money laundering was within his mandate, but he felt better prepared to focus on smaller projects.

Robertson’s testimony came after his successor, Fred Pinnock, who commanded IIGET from 2005 to 2008, testified on Thursday and Friday.

Second commander blamed government for direction

Pinnock had said he was prevented from investigating dirty money in B.C.’s legal gambling industry by senior RCMP leadership and a provincial government uninterested in disrupting a lucrative source of public revenue. The BC Liberal government disbanded IIGET in 2009.

Robertson said he met with Pinnock when Pinnock took over command of IIGET and Robertson left the RCMP to head a Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch team in Kelowna.

According to Robertson, Pinnock wanted to look into an illegal gambling website but his predecessor said the board would probably prefer he, too, focused on smaller, more manageable projects.

Robertson said he never told Pinnock that illegal activity at licensed casinos was outside IIGET’s official mandate.

Testimony at the Cullen Commission is expected to continue on Monday.