> The launderer bets all their money on the up and up, and does actual gambling. They win back some percentage of that.
Ok? So the hypothetical MO is: Go to a casino, buy $200 worth of chips with cash, gamble till there's $150 left, then cash the chips out? And that's "clean" money?
Because unless the launderer is good at gambling they aren't walking away with more money than they walked in with. And if done consistently it will still draw questions about where the initial $200 came from (assume it's more like $2m).
I've never gambled in a casino so I don't know how this would work.
As a simplified and extreme example just for illustration, imagine a launderer going to a million gas stations and buying a $1 lottery ticket in cash from each one until they've got most the tickets.
When they win the lottery, one gas station reports the winnings of $800,000 on a $1 bet. Launderer reports earning $1 selling a Pokémon card, and $800,000 winning the lottery. Other gas stations and dirty income, unreported, as small losses dont require individual reporting.
End result is $800,000 clean on $1,000,000 of dirty money and only $1 has to be explained.
For casinos, it's likely something closer to buying chips under the reporting threshold, losing most of them, and keeping on until winning a longshot bet. Or just claiming they are a card counter or some nonsense as to how they keep it up. The fact they lose some money to the house is just the cost of doing business. The fact winnings are reported, desirable.
I'm beginning to think you don't want to understand, rather than you can't. I made it explicit the initial example was an extreme example just for illustration, not to give the least labor intensive process nor to provide in black and white a conspiracy blueprint for someone to follow.
Ok? So the hypothetical MO is: Go to a casino, buy $200 worth of chips with cash, gamble till there's $150 left, then cash the chips out? And that's "clean" money?
Because unless the launderer is good at gambling they aren't walking away with more money than they walked in with. And if done consistently it will still draw questions about where the initial $200 came from (assume it's more like $2m).
I've never gambled in a casino so I don't know how this would work.