Roughly spoken, yes, it functions like 'because of.' Example:
"No one's killing any folk here today, on account of we got a really tight schedule."
(Mal, from my favorite series, Firefly)
It just sounds a lot funnier that way than the boring: "... because (of the fact that) we got a very tight schedule."
It can also mean 'for the sake of.' Like:
"They didn't divorce on account of the children."