‘Sufficient for the demand’: Crown Sydney drops VIP gaming floor for a new format

Crown Sydney has taken a gamble during a cost-of-living crisis and moved away from high rollers, opening its casino to everyone.

Sydney’s most prestigious casino has taken a gamble and moved away from high rollers and reopened its gaming floor and luxury Mahogany lounge to everyone.

Crown Sydney last week unveiled a newly renovated gaming room in its Mahogany Lounge, which previously could only be accessed by VIPs.

The casino, which was the brain child of former chairman and majority shareholder James Packer, was built as a VIP-only facility to suit international gambling high rollers, with no poker machines and a minimum bet of $20.

However, the Crown emphasised that its new gaming room was open to anyone over the age of 18, not just ‘very important people’.

Crown Sydney’s CEO, Mark McWhinnie, said they were keeping another part of the Crown’s gambling section closed because there simply wasn’t enough customers to keep both floors in business.

“We are opening this floor and we are not operating the level above because at this point in time, we still believe that this floor is sufficient for the demand,” he told news.com.au.

Natural light is let into the room.

The new look Crown Casino has reopened.

In August last year, Crown Sydney closed the Mahogany Lounge in response to less customers visiting its gaming rooms. The shut down also made 95 jobs redundant in the process.

Although these jobs are not being brought back with the reopening, Crown Sydney is hopeful that they will be able to reopen their second gaming floor if business can pick up.

“What we are looking to do is grow our membership baseline,” Mr McWhinnie said.

“(That’s) what we want to see in the international market, because as demand improves and increases, obviously we will then be taking a look at reopening a second floor.

“Part of the business that we’re looking to grow … is very much international investment, which is one of the areas of opportunity for us.”

The Crown Sydney launched at a unique time in 2020 when international borders were closed.

At the same time, Australia’s gambling regulator had also cracked down hard on the Crown over money laundering concerns, forcing its Sydney branch to open without a gambling licence while the NSW government decided whether it was fit to run as a casino.

Indeed, noticeably, there was one glaring change at Crown Sydney’s unveiling last Friday – windows. Floor to ceiling windows and also a balcony that guests could walk out on to view the Sydney Harbour.

Mr McWhinnie acknowledged this was “extremely unusual”, with casinos renowned for having no windows or clocks to make it easier to lose track in time.

But Crown Sydney’s had none of that, in a move its CEO said makes him believe the company now complies with all government regulations in the sector.

The Crown has been mired in controversy for years over money laundering, which has led to three separate parliamentary inquiries and also a record-breaking fine.

Mark McWhinnie unveiled the changes.

“In the last two years, we have essentially transformed our business,” Mr McWhinnie added.

“We have focused very heavily on governance. We focused on risk, we focused on compliance.

“And we’ve also focused very, very heavily on harm minimisation for our guests and also anti-money laundering practices, which we had in place, which again, we believe (are) extremely robust and make all regulatory requirements.”

Among those changes include training for staff so that they know the early warning signs of a problem gambler, and also encouraging employees to suggest to a customer they should take a break if they’ve been gambling for too long.

Staff are now also trained on how to watch out for money laundering.

It comes after the new owners of the Crown, Blackstone, purchased the group for $8.9 billion, with the acquisition finishing in 2022.

Since then, more than $71 million in investment has been poured in to get the business on the right side of the law.

In July last year, after protracted legal proceedings, the Crown was ordered to pay a $450 million penalty after coming to an agreement with financial crime watchdog Austrac.

The fee is the largest fine given to a casino globally and relates to failings at Crown’s Melbourne and Perth casinos to stop potential international money laundering and terrorism financing.

At the conclusion of a two-day hearing at the NSW Federal Court at the time, Judge Michael Lee ordered that the casino pay the fee – as per the agreement – in instalments, with $125 million paid upfront.

Crown is also required to pay more than $3 million for Austrac’s legal fees.

— with NCA Newswire

Originally published as ‘Sufficient for the demand’: Crown Sydney drops VIP gaming floor for a new format