This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
CROWN Resorts has been slapped with $120 million in fines after allowing customers to gamble for more than 24 hours straight and use plastic picks to lodge into poker machine buttons and simulate automatic play at its Melbourne casino.
The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC)’s found “extensive, sustained and systemic failures” over 12 years on the part of Crown, according VGCCC chairwoman Fran Thorn.
“The stories of financial loss, of suicide attempts, of forced sex work. The people who gambled for two to three days straight. These are real stories of real harm. We cannot forget and we cannot tolerate it,” Thorn said.
The fines – made up of $100 million for the gambling breaches and $20 million for the use of plastic picks – follows the VGCCC handing down an $80 million fine in May over the China UnionPay scheme in which more than $160 million was allowed to be shifted by high-rollers out China over four years.
Crown, which was taken over by Blackstone this year, did not lose its Melbourne casino licence despite a royal commission finding it unfit to run the venue to “illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative” behaviour, according to the report handed down by commissioner Ray Finkelstein.
Crown’s Sydney casino reopened on a conditional basis in August after a royal commission found it unfit to hold a gaming licence in NSW due to links to money laundering and organised crime, while rival the Star was hit with a $100 million fine and had its NSW casino licence suspended by the NSW Independent Casino Commission after an inquiry that heard allegations of criminal activity, money laundering and fraud on its Pyrmont premises.
