Yet again just a slap on the wrists for Crown….
The ABC reports..
Crown Resorts will keep its Melbourne casino licence for now, despite a Victorian royal commission finding that its conduct was “disgraceful”.
Key points:
- Crown will keep its licence for now, but must prove that it has reformed itself or lose its licence in two years’ time
- Royal commissioner Ray Finkelstein described Crown’s behaviour as “disgraceful”
- The government will ban junket trips by overseas VIP gamblers and increase maximum penalties for breaching gaming laws
The final report by commissioner Ray Finkelstein recommended Crown Melbourne should be given a two-year grace period under the control of a “special manager” to correct an “alarming catalogue of wrongdoing”.
The Victorian Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence found evidence of links to criminal gangs and repeated breaches of money laundering laws and the casino’s contract with the state.
That contract will not be ripped up despite Crown breaching the law — including hiding spurious state tax deductions from the regulator and dudding Victoria out of a potential $200 million in tax.
However, at the end of the grace period, the special manager will recommend to the regulator whether Crown should keep its Victorian casino licence.
The regulator will then have to decide whether it is “clearly satisfied” that Crown Melbourne has returned to suitability.
Mr Finkelstein warned that “this will be a tough test to satisfy”.
‘Alarming catalogue of wrongdoing’
The report stated that “not only was Crown Melbourne content to breach local laws”, between 2012 and 2016 it helped Chinese customers transfer up to $160 million from accounts in China to the Crown Towers Hotel for “services”, contravening local laws and allowing “money laundering to take place”.
“The commission discovered that for many years Crown Melbourne had engaged in conduct that is, in a word, disgraceful.
“This is a convenient shorthand for describing conduct that was variously illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative.”
Despite declining to recommend that Crown’s licence be immediately revoked, Mr Finkelstein was scathing in his assessment of the company’s breach of trust.
“The catalogue of wrongdoing is alarming, all the more so because it was engaged in by a regulated entity whose privilege to hold a casino licence is dependent upon it being, at all times, a person of good character, honesty and integrity.
“It is difficult to grade the seriousness of the misconduct. Some was so callous that it is hard to imagine it could be engaged in by such a well-known corporation whose Melbourne Casino Complex is visited by millions annually.”
Read more at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-26/crown-casino-victoria-royal-commission-report/100568072