Police in the Canadian province of British Columbia raided the site of a former medical clinic on Thursday afternoon after receiving information the property was being used to house an illegal miniature casino.
After executing a search warrant, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit - British Columbia revealed the unlicensed venue in the quiet Victoria suburb of Saanich was found to be hosting a number of electronic gambling machines as well as poker and dice gaming tables.
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Amplified Activity
A spokesperson for the western province’s organized crime unit, Staff Sergeant Lindsay Houghton, told Pique Newsmagazine the facility had ceased being a medical clinic in June of 2022 and could have been housing the illegal gambling operation for over a year. He revealed investigations into the property began some four months ago after neighbors began noticing a considerable uptick in the number of people visiting the formerly shuttered site.
“The building was basically all gutted out and open and turned into a little mini casino,” Houghton said. “It had electronic gambling devices and tables and dealers that you would use to play dice and card games. All of that was seized. It was like a small casino you would see in Las Vegas.”
Potential Prosecutions
Houghton disclosed the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit—British Columbia had arrested 14 people within the property at the time of the raid, although they were subsequently released without charge pending the outcome of additional enquiries. However, he explained criminal indictments could well follow further investigations, which could encompass the opening of any safes found at the site alongside the results of a forensic accounting exercise.
“In many cases there are ties to organized crime because the money used by gamblers is often obtained by illegal means like loan sharking and it works its way to organized crime, which in many cases fuels the illegal drug trade,” Houghton said.
Community Curiosity
Saanich resident Carl Cavanagh told Pique Newsmagazine the property on Cook Street had been quiet for months before increased activity began from around June of 2023.
He asserted the venue wasn’t noisy but had featured ‘people on the porch’ in addition to ‘people having beers’ with visitors treating it ‘like a private clubhouse’.
Owner Obliviousness
The building hosting the illicit gambling enterprise is owned by Calgary-headquartered Luxuria Group, which annually builds about 250 single-family homes alongside commercial units and apartment complexes in British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta.
The property developer’s Chief Executive Officer, Gurveer Randev, stated he ‘had no idea’ the site was being used to house an illegal casino and only learned about the raid via the press.
“This is the first I’m hearing about it,” Randev said.
Randev told Pique Newsmagazine his company is also responsible for a trio of neighboring homes while the clinic space was being leased through property management firm Colliers Victoria for a monthly rent of about $2,180. The executive furthermore admitted to conducting a walk-through visit ‘a few months ago’ as part of plans to bring a six-storey residential complex to the site complete with at least 80 apartments along with a medical clinic and a ground-floor coffee shop.
Meet The Author
Alan Campbell has been reporting on the global gambling industry ever since graduating from university in the late-1990s with degrees in journalism, English and history. Now headquartered in the northern English city of Sheffield, he has written on a plethora of topics, companies, regulatory developments and technological innovations for a large number of traditional and digital publications from around the planet.
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