Southern California casino raided by federal authorities

The Bicycle Hotel and Casino in Bell Gardens, California.
(Image credit: Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images)

Gamblers at the Bicycle Hotel & Casino in Bell Gardens, California, were told to leave on Tuesday morning by federal investigators, who were there as part of a probe into money laundering, law enforcement officials told the Los Angeles Times.

The operation lasted all day, and thousands of financial records were seized during the raid, which was led by members of the Los Angeles High Intensity Financial Crime Area Task Force. The focus of the investigation is on people who bring laundered funds to the casino, place bets with the dirty money, and exchange their chips for clean money, the Times reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.