Nevada unlikely to lose federal money laundering exemption

Monday, Oct. 1, 2001 | 9:40 a.m.

Nevada casinos are unlikely to lose an exemption that keeps them from filing suspicious cash transaction reports with the U.S. Treasury Department, a Nevada official said.

The U.S. Treasury is considering new regulations that would extend suspicious transaction reporting requirements to casinos across the country.

All casinos outside of Nevada are now required to report to the Treasury Department any cash transaction above $10,000; the draft regulation calls for non-Nevada casinos to report transactions of $3,000 and above the casino "knows, suspects or has reason to suspect" could be for the purposes of money laundering.

Nevada casinos are exempt from current federal reporting requirements because of a state gaming regulation that requires the state's casinos to report such transactions to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Gregory Gale, chief of the control board's audit division, said that is not likely to change with the new federal regulations -- even as the battle against money laundering takes on new urgency after terrorist attacks Sept. 11.

"As far as I'm aware, Treasury has not called us regarding our process," Gale said. "I think they're very happy with the way (the Nevada regulation) is functioning in Nevada, happy with the way our casino industry complies. I haven't heard anything from Treasury indicating they want to change.

"Casinos (in Nevada) make such an effort to comply with (the regulations) already. (The regulation) was already very high on their list. When things like this happen, they might pay closer attention to their customers and their cash activity, but they've been doing a good job all along."