News from Mexico says that Cardinal Norberto Rivera is not against entertainment, just against casinos whilst they can be used for money laundering. One doesn’t hope that God’s representatives on earth would have their feet on the ground, because otherwise they would be concerned with more than bringing God’s message, so therefore it may be understood that the Cardinal still believes that casinos launder mafia money.

If the Church wishes to oppose money laundering effectively, they should start by looking at the financial arrangements of the Vatican. Until it was revealed that the Banco Ambrosiano, frequently called the Vatican Bank and in charge of the Vatican’s Institute of Religious Works’ finances, was a financial body linked to corrupt politicians and mafias specialising in money laundering in the 80s, most people thought that this supposedly respectable bank of the Catholic clergy dealt with the millionaire finances of the Vatican correctly. A number of investigations and publications have questioned the bank’s dealings before its collapse.

If the Mexican cardinal, and others who frequently trot out the money laundering myth, understood the legislation that governs the casino industry in properly run jurisdictions, such as Nevada, New Jersey and the United Kingdom, etc., he would realize that criminals involved in money laundering would run a mile from those casinos and prefer the security of banks such as the Ambrosiano. It is exceedingly improbable that what occurred at that bank could happen at a regulated casino, and there has never been a money laundering case brought against a casino in a properly regulated jurisdiction.

It is for the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, created during a G7 meeting in Paris in 1989, to fight money laundering, and the clergy should support them wholeheartedly. However, the clergy should not be taking up the cudgels against an industry where most people are honest and above all ply their trade under the strict rules of the regulatory bodies.

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