It seems that the saga surrounding Australia’s top casino operators is still unfolding. The Royal Commission examining the casino operator found, after months of inquiries and investigations beginning in October last year, that Crown Resorts’ Melbourne Casino often allowed clients to gamble for more than 24 hours. It also lets people use plastic picks to hold buttons on poker machines in a manner similar to automated play.
Summary of Crown Melbourne Investigation Findings
Crown Melbourne has been ordered to pay record-breaking fines of AUD 120 million by Victoria’s Gaming and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) for violations of the state’s gaming laws. The VGCCC determined that the Crown’s violations were widespread, ongoing, and systematic, with serious consequences. The report further states that Crown’s conduct contravened even the operator’s own policies on play duration, and these infringements were not occasional mistakes, with Crown’s behavior showing clear intent to abuse the system and wilful neglect towards its own customers’ safety and health for over a dozen years.
The Royal Commission was outraged by the many accounts of problem gamblers who had become absolutely impoverished, attempted suicide, or turned to sex work as a means of coping with the suffering that the Crown had permitted and even encouraged to befall them.
Crown Has Not Made Any Progress.
After an eight-week investigation starting in October 2021, the VGCCC concluded that according to casino legislation, Crown Melbourne was not suitable to hold a gaming license for its Melbourne location. However, the authorities were understanding at the time, and the casino resort operator was given time to re-evaluate and revamp its business model into a more contemporary form. Crown had ignored prior warnings from Australia’s gaming regulator, according to the commission’s findings at the time, and had failed to live up to its self-proclaimed global leader position in responsible gambling processes.
The VGCCC has previously used its expanded enforcement authority to impose penalties against the Crown. In May 2022, the VGCCC fined Crown AUD 80 million for conspiring to aid in the illegal flow of money transfers from Chinese players. Including the most recent round of penalties, the VGCCC has now levied fines on Crown totaling over AUD 200 million since it gained expanded enforcement authority.
Crown Takes Its Medicine
Crown has acknowledged the VGCCC’s disciplinary actions and is reportedly making great efforts to be trustworthy and to conform to the definition of a suitable partner for the state. In a statement made by the firm, Crown expressed deep regret for its mistakes and vowed to take the lead once again in providing secure and responsible forms of casino enjoyment. A new leadership team was brought in, and they said they were implementing a company-wide transformation initiative to improve Crown’s culture and make it more competitive with international standards.
Crown agreed that while they put up a lot of effort into their plan to transform and improve their business model, more effort is needed. They have committed to continue working collaboratively alongside the VGCCC and the Australian state in order to fix all the controversial matters brought up by the report.
Low Confidence in the Crown’s Future
If Crown doesn’t change the way it communicates and works with state authorities, who have fined the casino $120 million, it will lose the lucrative license for its Melbourne casino. The regulator claims that its investigators were met with pushback from Crown, despite the company’s new ownership and promises to change.
It seems that the Crown intends to communicate with the Commission in the same way it did with the previous regulator. As Crown Melbourne has previously indicated, the manner in which it responded was reminiscent of the former Crown, which Crown Melbourne wishes to put in the past. A designated monitor will spend the next 15 months keeping an eye on how things are going at Crown Melbourne. After that period of time, the monitor and the regulator will evaluate whether or not the firm is fit to keep the license.
Final Reflections
Although it remains to be seen if Crown Melbourne will change its methods and begin providing a secure environment for Australian players, one thing is certain: the gaming landscape in Australia is improving. With the inquiries launched into both Crown Resorts and Star Entertainment, two of Australia’s biggest gambling operators, and the actions taken based on the results of these inquiries, it would appear that the country’s gambling authorities are finally using their power to enforce the law and make meaningful progress toward taming the Wild West that the Australian casino industry has become over the years.
