Canada’s financial intelligence agency has issued combined fines of C$631,538.50 against two Atlantic provincial gaming corporations for anti-money-laundering compliance failures.
FINTRAC imposed a C$399,712.50 penalty on New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation and a C$231,826 fine on Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation following separate compliance examinations.
Both penalties have since been paid in full, and FINTRAC has confirmed the cases are now officially closed.
Investigators found that New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation failed to file three suspicious transaction reports despite having sufficient grounds to do so.
FINTRAC identified several warning signs within the underlying player activity, including shared credit cards or contact details among apparently unrelated players and links between accounts and unconnected parties.
Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation’s violations centred on gaps in its written compliance policies, including a failure to properly document and apply ministerial directives during the period examined.
The regulator also found that Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation lacked a documented enterprise-level assessment of money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks, with FINTRAC classifying those failures as serious violations.
The penalties extend a growing run of FINTRAC enforcement actions against gambling operators, including Atlantic Lottery Corporation, which was fined C$212,025 in May and had the penalty publicly announced in July.
Atlantic Lottery Corporation’s violations included a failure to file one suspicious transaction report alongside shortcomings in compliance procedures and risk assessment, and both New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation and Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation are Atlantic Lottery shareholders.
FINTRAC’s broader enforcement record against Canadian gaming bodies also includes a C$1.1 million fine against British Columbia Lottery Corporation and a C$1.2 million penalty against Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority, both issued in 2025.
Canadian National Exhibition Casino received a C$199,000 penalty, and all three of those entities subsequently appealed their fines to Federal Court.
Scrutiny of the two Atlantic corporations is not entirely new, as New Brunswick’s Auditor General previously criticised NBLGC governance in a 2015 financial audit, citing irregular board meetings, no audit committee, and weak risk oversight.
That same audit called for stronger due diligence after a gaming investment resulted in a C$4.3 million loss for the corporation.
Nova Scotia’s Auditor General separately identified a significant financial-control weakness at NSGC in 2019, finding no established process to ensure external advisors’ conclusions on complex accounting matters were properly reflected in financial reporting.
