Jamaica sharpens casino defences

As Princess Grand Jamaica Resort in Hanover prepares to open Jamaica’s first fully-fledged casino early next year, local law enforcement agencies are sharpening their skills at combating money laundering and counter-terrorism financing in collaboration with the entity tasked with regulating this industry that last year generated more than US$320 billion globally. Senior executives of the Casino Gaming Commission (CGC) told this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange that the regulator has been engaged in training with the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA), the Financial Investigations Division (FID), and the Jamaica Customs Agency. “The partnership with MOCA and FID is a partnership of capacity-building and information-sharing, support, and investigations,” CGC Senior Director of Enforcement and Investigations Damion McKenzie told Observer reporters and editors.

“Casino gaming is unique here, so some of the typologies and some of the crimes that happen in casinos, they might not be familiar with them. Our initiatives are to ensure that they are aware of those types of instances that can happen in a casino,” McKenzie explained. “We have conducted training with them for them to understand even the slot machines.

We partnered with Gaming Laboratories International and MOCA, FID and the Jamaica Customs Agency are part of that training for them to understand the mechanisms behind slot machines and the vulnerabilities. The partnerships are geared towards investigative support as well,” McKenzie added. Explaining the commission’s investigative role and duties, McKenzie said: “If we start an investigation and we can’t carry it forward anymore — because we don’t have the powers of prosecution and arrest — we will take it as far we can and then hand that file over to MOCA and FID.” The commission’s Chief Executive Officer Cleveland Allen emphasised that the entity is committed to properly regulating the casino gaming industry by ensuring a multi-pronged approach is taken towards monitoring the sector in order to better protect the financial ecosystem.

“We operate in a space where we don’t have all the resources and all the knowledge, but remember, we operate in a large financial ecosystem. Our approach is focused on keeping us off the blacklist and on the right side of FATF (Financial Action Task Force),” Allen said.