Atlantic Lottery Agrees to Pay $212K FINTRAC Fine

Atlantic Lottery Corporation Inc. (Atlantic Lottery) announced it will not dispute a Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) penalty of $212,025, imposed on May 29 for administrative violations involving suspicious transaction reporting and anti-money laundering compliance.

FINTRAC announced on July 9 that it had imposed the fine and that the gaming operator had violated the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act.

Agency Issues Penalty

According to FINTRAC, Atlantic Lottery was found to have committed these administrative violations:

• Failure to submit a suspicious transaction report where there were reasonable grounds to suspect that a transaction or attempted transaction is related to the commission or attempted commission of a money laundering or a terrorist activity financing offence.
• There was a failure to develop and apply written compliance policies and procedures that are kept up to date and are approved by a senior officer. 
• Finally, there was a failure to assess and document the risk of money laundering or terrorist activity financing offence, taking into consideration the prescribed factors.

Atlantic Lottery announced in a statement on July 10 that it paid the penalty. The findings by FINTRAC, they said in the statement, did not include allegations of money laundering, terrorist financing, or criminal conduct by Atlantic Lottery or its players.

Lottery Declines to Appeal

“While Atlantic Lottery has full confidence that its compliance program meets or exceeds its obligations, it is not in the best interest of Atlantic Canadians to divert funds that would otherwise be returned to provincial shareholders by disputing this penalty through a legal appeal,” the statement read.

Atlantic Lottery is the government-owned lottery and gaming corporation representing Canada’s four Atlantic provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador). 

FINTRAC Enforcement Trends

It operates lottery games, video lottery terminals, online gambling and sports betting across Atlantic Canada, and owns and operates the Red Shores gaming and entertainment facility in Prince Edward Island.

FINTRAC is Canada’s financial intelligence agency, responsible for detecting, preventing and deterring money laundering and terrorist activity, collecting, analyzing and sharing financial intelligence with the police and national security agencies.

The agency in 2025-26 issued 35 notices of violation of non-compliance to businesses, the largest number in a single year in its history, for a total of $247 million. That was across all business sectors, not just gaming.