Is Bicycle Casino Money-Laundering Raid Connected to Casino Cheating?

Money-Laundering Raid at Bicycle Casino

Last Tuesday, federal agents raided the long-time famous California poker and gaming club at the Bicycle Hotel and Casino in Bell Gardens, California. The basis of the raid was a money-laundering investigation by the FBI and other federal financial and ICE task forces.

Ever since I have been receiving several emails asking if casino-cheating at the Bicycle casino was somehow related to this. I also noticed in online news articles detailing the raid that people interviewed made references to "being cheated" or "something fishy" about how the poker and pai-gow games were run by Bicycle casino personnel.

So that is probably what spawned the questions about whether pai-gow or poker cheating at the Bicycle casino could be involved in this.

My short answer is no.

Money-laundering is a criminal operation usually carried out by drug cartels or other illegal criminal gangs involved in high-cash operations, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a weekly basis. Casino cheats, even the highly professionl ones that do make serious money, are not generally in the category of money-laundering. They may hold on to chips and not cash out to avoid casino security and surveillance catching on to their casino and poker cheating activities, but that's about it.

So, no, the big federal raid on the Bicycle casino most likely is an investigation into major Asian gangs laundering  some serious cash.