Posted on: February 8, 2026, 03:17h.
Last updated on: February 8, 2026, 03:17h.
- B.C. man took BCLC to court over being placed on casino restriction list
- BCLC’s ‘sourced cash conditions’ came out of B.C. casino money laundering investigations
- Series of $9,000 casino cash buy-ins, just under BCLC limit, raised red flags
A British Columbia man has crapped out in his attempts to have the B.C. Supreme Court remove him from a casino restricted list.
Ali Ghotaymi was placed by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) on “sourced cash conditions”, introduced in 2015, which requires a casino patron to provide evidence of the source of cash they are using for a buy-in at a casino using cash. That evidence includes bank account information and records showing the transaction when the cash was withdrawn from that account.
Sourced Cash Conditions
It’s a restricted list for those suspected of money laundering. BCLC imposes sourced cash conditions on any casino cash buy-ins of $10,000 or more. The crown corporation is owned by the province of British Columbia and is legally responsible for conducting, managing and operating all commercial gambling, including casinos.
In the case of Ghotaymi, his pattern of cash buy-ins at B.C. casinos raised concerns. He was placed on sourced cash conditions on July 8, 2021. According to the B.C. Supreme Court decision, staff at River Rock Casino made an incident report when Ghotaymi made a cash buy-in of $9,000, just under the $10,000 limit.
$141,655 In Net Winnings
According to BCLC records, Mr. Ghotaymi made 29 “large cash transactions” at B.C. casinos between February 2019 and July 2021. Eleven of those were in the amount of $9,000. On February 17, 2020, Ghotaymi made two $9,000 buy‑ins at two different casinos within less than two hours.
Ghotaymi, an employee at Canada Post, didn’t like the fact he had been flagged. He said it wrongly stigmatized him as a money launderer, impacting his ability to get security clearance somewhere, or find a job. What happened to him was unreasonable because there was no notice given, he argued. So he took BCLC to court about it.
Ghotaymi said he frequently comes to the casino with $9,000 in cash, funds that came from previous winnings at the casino, and that 9 was a lucky number for him. His net winnings at the casino between February 2019 and July 2021 after buy-ins was $141,655. The casino paid him out in cash, so the $9,000 cash buy-in explanation had merit, he argued.
Casino News: Lucky No. 9
However, because the casino cannot verify that cash buy‑ins on one day are necessarily sourced from cash won at the casino on an earlier day, or even earlier that same day if the patron leaves the casino for a period of time, BCLC maintains that sourced cash conditions are still necessary for large cash buy‑ins,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Matthew Kirchner wrote.
“In other words, if a patron who is subject to sourced cash conditions wishes to use cash they won at the casino a day or two before, they must still run that cash through their bank account by depositing it and then withdrawing it again. This creates a traceable transaction history for the cash and allows BCLC to benefit from rigorous anti‑money laundering procedures used by accredited banks.”
Cullen Commission Investigation
The restricted list came out of a money laundering crisis in B.C. casinos. In 2022, a report by the Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in British Columbia, or the Cullen Commission, shone a spotlight on how big a problem it was.
In 2014, B.C. casinos accepted nearly $1.2 billion in cash transactions of $10,000 or more, including 1,881 individual cash buy-ins of $100,000 or more, an average of more than five per day. The report said there was a direct link between criminal organizations and cash transactions and money laundering at B.C. casinos.
Strong Public Interest in Curtailing Money Laundering
The Commission was critical of BCLC for not adequately addressing money laundering problems.
The B.C. government’s new Gaming Control Act was passed last year, and comes into effect this April. That will address recommendations tackling fraud and money laundering from two high-profile investigations – the Dirty Money report by Peter German in 2018 as well as the Cullen Commission inquiry into money laundering. The Gaming Control Act will include the creation of an independent gambling regulator, according to a statement from BC’s Public Safety and Solicitor General.
Regarding the Ghotaymi case, Supreme Court Justice Matthew Kirchner said:
“I agree with BCLC that the decision amounts to imposing conditions on a consumer transaction concerning gaming. It is administrative, not adjudicative, in this respect because it regulates how Mr. Ghotaymi may buy-in at a casino … it does not adjudicate whether Mr. Ghotaymi is involved in money laundering and does not impose sanctions or penalties on him. It does not prohibit him from gambling, nor compel him to make financial disclosure, since like all casino patrons, he has other options to buy-in with other methods.
Casino Restriction List
When the history of money laundering in British Columbia casinos is considered, along with the strong public interest in curtailing that illegal and even dangerous activity, subjecting patrons who prefer to gamble using large sums of cash, even if obtained from the casino itself, to sourced cash conditions does not strike me as objectively onerous.
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