Part III: Business & Regulation · Gaming Regulation & Compliance

Chip Washing / Minimal Gaming

AML/CFTREPORTED

A money laundering technique in which a patron purchases casino chips with illicit cash, gambles minimally or not at all, and then cashes out the chips to receive a casino check or clean cash. The resulting documentation (a check from a regulated casino) gives the appearance of legitimate gambling winnings, effectively “washing” the dirty money. Surveillance and compliance personnel are trained to identify this pattern through monitoring of play duration relative to chip purchase and redemption amounts, and by tracking patrons who consistently show minimal gaming activity relative to large financial transactions.

One entry from the Casino Industry Glossary, 1,090 terms written for surveillance, compliance and operations professionals rather than for players. Definitions describe industry usage; where a term carries a regulatory meaning, verify against the instrument that governs your jurisdiction.