The gambling mecca of Asia has decided it’s no longer okay to launder North Korean drug money, reports the Los Angeles Times. As the story points out, there has always been a dark underside to the colony’s economy as a trading port and center of illicit activity.

But they had to draw a line somewhere and this is were they drew it: After years of handling the deal leader’s money, the Macau banks are not doing it any more. They have decided that it’s much more important to get money for the new casinos from the U.S. And no American banker or bond-seller is going to work with the local institutions so long as Macau looked like a paradise of financial intrigue.

And it is the Chinese, the paper implies, who really want to clean up Macau for the international money men. But the Stanley Ho connection is looking even more problematic. Nevada gaming authorities are already looking into the Pansy Ho-MGM Mirage connection but her father, who sold her the sub-concession that got MGM into the Macau market, also owns a casino in Pyongyang. He’s one guy who’d prefer not to be known by the company he keeps.

The North Koreans are so mad about the banking freeze, they say they won’t negotiate nuclear issues until their Macau privileges are restored. The paper says the changes in Macau are “the result of a delicate diplomatic dance involving the United States, China and the government of Macao.” Not much of a dance, though. The U.S. government brought out the Patriot Act and forced the authorities to make an example of a bank that was not well-connected.