The US Treasury Department has recently hinted that it will require much more vigilant action by casinos to combat money laundering, leading gambling executives to fear that high rollers will stay away from the tables rather than provide more intimate details about their finances.

Jennifer Shasky Calvery, Director of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), recently told an audience at the Global Gaming Expo that casinos should abide by the same regulations put in place for other financial institutions.

“Every financial institution, casinos included, should be concerned about its reputation,” she said during her speech. “Integrity goes a long way.”

The new regulations would likely involve increased scrutiny of high-risk transactions, such as large international bank wires and massive cash deposits. Casinos are already required to watch for suspicious activity, such as players who make big deposits only to wager very little and cash out quickly.

Gambling operators, however, believe that more intrusive vetting of high-stakes players will lead to a marked decline in business. Big-spending players, known as “whales,” can wager so much money that their play can single-handedly swing a casino’s balance sheet from the red to the black or vice-versa.

Operators and VIP hosts argue that gamblers who have no criminal intentions might choose to use their resources to travel to other gambling destinations such as Macau instead of enduring increased invasions of privacy in Las Vegas.

The American Gaming Association (AGA) has shown concern over the strict guidelines that the Treasury hopes to put in place as well. “This is a serious issue that could radically alter the way that casinos do business,” said AGA President Geoff Freeman (pictured) in a statement.

But Shasky is not moved by such arguments, telling her gaming audience, “When some casinos say that probing their customers about their activities outside of the casino will drive customers away, I sense that they feel that it is not their responsibility to protect their institutions, and our financial system as a whole, from being used by illicit actors,” she said.

“You ask your customers many questions about their preferences; you can and should get information about their sources of funds to meet your obligations to identify and report suspicious activity,” she added.

Since casinos are classified as financial institutions, US law already requires that they file a report on every transaction over $10,000. If these Currency Transaction Reports are not filed within 15 days, operators can face fines of up to $100,000.

With new regulations, casinos would be tasked with prying even deeper into the source of their player’s funds. Of course, these strict rules could have implications for mid- to high-stakes poker players who regularly buy into games for five-figures and up.

The Treasury Department believes that stricter controls would prevent incidents like the case of Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese-Mexican businessman who was arrested for drug trafficking, but only after wagering $84 million at the Las Vegas Sands-owned Venetian (pictured). His host casino recently admitted that it had not sufficiently scrutinized Gon’s financial situation and paid $47 million in fines to the Department of Justice.

Other casinos are already reportedly in the sites of the Treasury as well. In a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Caesars Palace, the company divulged that it was being investigated for possible money laundering violations.

Kevin Rosenberg, one of the lawyers who fought against Sands in the Gon case believes that changes in the industry are inevitable. “There is a sea change afoot with respect to casinos and US Government focus on them because there is just so much money that moves through casinos,” he told CNBC. “The message is: ‘You’ve got to get a lot better than you have been.'”

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