Everi Holdings announced it had announced that it had won a bid to provide its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) software to the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), one of the most consequential providers of online poker, casino gaming, and sports betting in Canada.
The Nevada-based company said Everi Compliance — its software package that includes an AML component, among others — would support the BCLC “as it conducts and manages lottery, casino, bingo, and online gaming on behalf of the province for the benefit of British Columbians.”
Everi Compliance has been installed at over 600 gaming properties worldwide.
In a statement, Everi Executive Vice President Darren Simmons said the company “is committed to adapting to customer needs as the industry changes and creates exciting new opportunities.
“BCLC has prioritized high levels of compliance as part of the continued expansion of their fast-growing gaming operations in casinos and online platforms across British Columbia. Our RegTech solutions are designed for a wide variety of applications, and we are proud to have been chosen to support BCLC’s critical AML program.”
According to Everi’s website, casinos need the same AML protections as banks. The company said the AML component of its Everi Compliance software includes Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols and gives operators the ability to process reports covering suspicious activities, currency transactions, and negotiable instrument logs, among other things.
Operators can also submit reports electronically, analyze transactions, and complete compliance audits.
The agreement for AML services expands upon a business relationship between the two that started back in November 2018. That month, BCLC approved the deployment of Everi’s TournEvent slot tournament system to 35 land-based casinos in the province.
Everi supplies land-based and online slot content throughout British Columbia. The company’s online gaming division, Everi Digital, is the largest provider of digital three-reel stepper products on BCLC’s PlayNow online casino platform.
PlayNow is often described as a vehicle that could really get multi-provincial poker off the ground in Canada — especially if Ontario, the largest province in terms of the population — is brought into the fold.
At present, Canada is home to the Canada Poker Network (CPN), a multi-provincial compact that includes British Columbia, Manitoba, and Québec. A fourth province, Saskatchewan, is expected to join CPN in early 2023.
CPN was first formed in February 2011, after the BCLC launched peer-to-peer poker on Espace Jeux, an iGaming site run by Loto-Québec.
Manitoba joined the CPN in January 2013 after the provincial regulator, the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation (MBLL), began using the BCLC’s PlayNow igaming platform. In neighboring Saskatchewan, the province’s Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) plans to launch online poker through the PlayNow platform in 2023.
In Ontario, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) considered joining the CPN in 2015, the same year that it launched online gaming in the province.
Although those plans never materialized, OLG might offer online poker at some point via the PlayNow platform, boosting CPN to a network with five provinces and a population of nearly 24 million.
