Toronto city councillor Mark Grimes calls the silence from Ontario's gambling authorities "deafening," in light of a money laundering investigation that implicates Great Canadian Gaming.
The company was announced last August as the winner of a lucrative Ontario Lottery & Gaming contract to operate several gaming properties across the province, including a proposed casino expansion at Etobicoke's Woodbine Racetrack.
A month later, Great Canadian's name came up in a $500-million money laundering investigation in British Columbia in which staffers at one of the company's Vancouver-area casinos were alleged to have knowingly accepted millions of dollars worth of suspicious cash transactions.
Since then, 2 people behind a BC money transfer company have been charged as a result of the investigation.
Councillor Grimes says officials from Great Canadian Gaming reached out to him via email on Monday morning, stressing that the firm has been involved in no wrong-doing.
However, the councillor says he's not satisfied with explanations he's heard from the company, the Crown corporation in charge of gaming in Ontario, and Ontario's gambling regulator.
"I think it's really important that we find out what's going on," Grimes says.
Officials with both OLG and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario say they didn't know Great Canadian had been implicated in the BC investigation until the government report was released last month.
The contention from councillor Grimes is that in the interest of doing business in good faith, Great Canadian should have disclosed to officials in Ontario that its anti-money laundering practices had come up in an investigation in another jurisdiction.
Grimes says they are questions that he and other city councillors will be asking as the Woodbine casino expansion plan makes its way through various stages at Toronto city council.
"It is concerning and answers have to come forward," Grimes says, adding that, "we have to go cautiously slow (on the casino expansion) ... and I think we have to get further information before we go further forward."
Great Canadian released a written statement on Monday morning defending its record on following regulations on gaming and finance.
The company says it first passed along to BC regulators reports of suspicious activity as early as 2012.
OLG says that Great Canadian was not a registered gaming operator in Ontario until some time before September of 2015, when it assumed control of 3 gaming sites in eastern Ontario.
Thus, according to spokesman Tony Bitonti, in 2012 "Great Canadian was not required to notify OLG of its conversations with BC regulators."
"Again, to our knowledge, Great Canadian is not and was not the subject of any regulatory or criminal investigation requiring disclosure under the procurement process," Bitonti says.
He adds that OLG requires bidders to disclose any regulatory or criminal investigation under rules of its procurement process.
Last week, the head investigator at the AGCO told NEWSTALK 1010 that since the release of the BC Attorney General's report last month, his officers are following up with authorities in British Columbia over the allegations surrounding Great Canadian.
"Certainly we have some concerns about what's been outlined in the report but we're not jumping to conclusions," said OPP Supt. Bill Price.
Price says his office is following further developments in the case, adding that investigators are "paying attention" to what might come of a newly-announced BC government probe into anti-money laundering policies.