In Episode 21 of Kinectify Conversations, Jaclyn Woods, BSA/AMLCompliance Officer for the Chickasaw Nation Department of Commerce, joins Sean Topchi to talk about law enforcement partnerships, compliance challenges, and vendor transparency and accountability. Jaclyn shares her journey from operations to compliance and how her experience gives her a unique edge in understanding the complexities that casino staff face when handling compliance tasks. She also shares how fostering meaningful collaborations with law enforcement agencies are crucial in address major threats like Chinese money laundering organizations, and gives us practical advice on building these partnerships and the importance of real-time data sharing.

With this year's new federal AML rules and proposed FinCEN regulations, Jaclyn tells us how her team is proactively preparing for upcoming rule changes, including those focusing on counterterrorism financing (CFT)and adapting their compliance strategies to keep up with evolving requirements. She explains how Chickasaw Nation's compliance team is staying ahead of these changes to stay prepared and compliant.

Jaclyn touches on the importance of choosing the right vendors when it comes to fraud detection tools and digital wallets. She emphasizes the need for transparency and accountability with vendor partners to ensure they align with the strict compliance standards needed in the casino industry. This episode is a must-listen for anyone in AML risk management who wants tips on staying proactive in this fast-changing field.

Click here to listen on Spotify.

Transcript

Sean Topchi: Welcome to Kinectify Conversations. My name is Sean Topchi, and I'm the Director of Business Development at Kinectify. Our mission is to share the experience, expertise, and insights from gaming industry leaders that comes from years of navigating the complexities and impact of compliance. On this episode, I am joined by special guest:

Jaclyn Woods: My name is Jaclyn Woods, the BSA AML Compliance Officer for the Chickasaw Nation Department of Commerce.

Sean Topchi: Thanks for joining us today and remember to like and subscribe to the podcast. You can also learn more anytime at Kinectify. com. That's K I N E C T I F Y dot com.

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Kinectify Conversations. I have a wonderful guest with today, Jaclyn Woods. She's the BSA AML Officer of the Chickasaw Nation Department of Commerce. Jaclyn, I feel like I talk to you all the time now, so I know plenty about you. For those of our viewers who don't know you, I'd love for you to give a little background on yourself and your career path within the Chickasaw Nation.

Jaclyn Woods: Sure. So I started my career with the Chickasaw Nation in 2006, working at a casino property, where I was going to college. And I am a Chickasaw citizen, so I always wanted to give back to my tribe. After I graduated, I came back to work for the nation in 2010. I spent about 10 years in operations and various management roles at various of our properties. We have 25 different casinos within Oklahoma. I spent some time as an area general manager and a retail manager. I've dabbled in all of it.

And then about three years ago, I switched over to what we call, the dark side of compliance and I have really enjoyed the last three years. I find a lot of this very interesting, so really enjoy the compliance side of things.

Sean Topchi: I think we tend to see cage to AML or table game slots to AML, even finance to AML security.

Not often you see somebody transition from a GM type role to BSA AML, I'd love to hear a little more about what kind of caused you to make that switch over from operations to this. 

Jaclyn Woods: Yeah, definitely kind of untraditional. My predecessor also came from operations and we've shifted gears with our AML program at the time and wanted to go kind of a different route and create a more robust department.

And so, my upper management came to me and said, "Hey, what do you think about BSA?" And I said, not a lot, but tell me more. And, it was a change of pace, been in operations a long time, 24 hour facilities. It can get to be a lot on your work, personal life, and so taking a little foray into compliance has really been nice and like I said, I've really enjoyed the content. And of course, this is an area that's expanding. So I enjoy this side of things. I still get to use that operational experience. I think that really helps us. We can relate to the staff, to the management. We know what they do. We used to do those jobs. A lot of the people I've brought on are from operations and we know what they can and can't do, what they're capable of. How hard those jobs are and we meet them where they are, with how can we help you with your compliance. 

Sean Topchi: Yeah. And while it's a rare transition, I think it's an incredibly useful one because I think sometimes compliance departments, we come from an aspect of, "Hey, this is what we know the regulations are, so this is how this thing needs to be." And you don't necessarily realize what are the five hundred other responsibilities that a cage supervisor has going on. What all the chaos is that they're dealing with on a nightly basis. Especially if you're talking about like peak of swing shift and things like that, everything that can be going on at once.

I love that you're able to approach it from that lens. Now that you are on the BSA AML side resourcing what you have available to execute and everything tends to change. And typically with BSA AML departments, there's always too many risks and not enough time to address those risks.

What are some of those typologies threats that have been, occupying a lot of your time and we'll say keeping you up at night, so to speak. 

Jaclyn Woods: So within Oklahoma, we do have a legal marijuana market. But it tends to dabble in the black and gray market as well. So it's a lot of law enforcement action in that sector, in our state right now. That's mainly what we see from a criminal aspect is dealing with issues with illegal grow operations, being busted near our facilities or our patrons being involved.

And so we, we really scan the news. We scan social media. To just make sure we don't have patrons that are involved in some of these issues, because of course, if they're coming into the casino with some of that illicitly gained funds, puts us in a bad spot. So really, we're pretty tied up with illegal grow operations, Chinese money laundering organizations, and general threats that exist right now around that market. 

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Listen to the full episode on Spotify.

ABOUT KINECTIFY

Kinectify is an intelligence and risk management technology company serving gaming operators in the US and Canada. Kinectify's modern AML platform empowers clients to efficiently manage risk with real-time intelligence so they can focus on growing their businesses instead of being bogged down by compliance. In addition, Kinectify's advisory services enhance gaming operators' capacity with industry experts who can design and test programs, meet compliance deadlines, and even provide outsource services for the day-to-day administration of compliance programs.

To learn more about Kinectify and book a demo, click here.