The guy was throwing down $1-2 million in bills as a "front" to divert attention from the real scam.
He and his associates had probably bought millions and millions in "untraceable" casino chips that were stashed away, to be distributed later (the chips are then cashed in)----that's the real money launder---no sweat.
Laundering stolen cash from businesses (or crimes) by buying huge amounts of chips at casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and other global gambling venues, is a time-worn trick.............easily replicated in the politcal realm.
Over a period of time, Hsu and associates could have taken huge amounts of cash for their pals to casinos (to evade the IRS, SEC, and state and federal US banking laws).
A caveat: if Hsu or any of these people were stupid enough to enroll in casino promotions to earn high roller "comps" -- complimentary meals, nights in hotel suites.......the enrollment move allows the casino to know every single chip bet on every single game, and, more importantly, allows state and federal investigators to electronically track the movement of stolen money from business coffers to casino laundries. Casino records would also record wins on which the individuals may have failed to pay US taxes.
Hsu may also have sent wire transfers, checks and money orders to casinos that were converted into easily-hidden casino chips.
And remember, when the crooks get nabbed, they lie their way out of it, saying they "lost" the money gambling........money that is safely stashed away in untraceable chips.
Lastly, The Florida credit card processing company, Regpay, operated by Byelorussians with ties to organized crime, may have been used to process funds in these activities (Regpay was involved in processing credit cards for purchasing kiddie porn online).
Pretty good scam.
I believe that recently large casinos instituted the program of having electronic “chips” in the casino chips specifically for the purpose of being able to track them. But it’s a very recent and experimental development, so I doubt there is a lot of these in circulation, and don’t know how exactly it would be used to defeat this scam, except for one obvious way - “time not in use” could show that chip was not used for a long period of time, which is not an usual “behavior” of your regular casino chip...
Thanks for that explanation for what was going on in Vegas. I knew something was up related to Laundering, because it appeared to be more then just a gambling addiction. For the life of me I could not figure out the specifics of ‘why’ it would be done. I was assuming that somehow the Casino itself was involved, but as you pointed out, perhaps not. The Casino was just the washing machine. The terrible gambler was just the cover so the feds would not be tipped off by the casino. Obviously the gambler did not loose everything. Cost of doing business. To wash $4 million it costs perhaps $1 to $2 million of show gambling losses.