Things were looking up for Crown Resorts investors in March after US private equity group Blackstone lobbed a full takeover bid and The Star put a merger offer on the table a couple of months later.

Investors and analysts viewed the looming Victorian and West Australian royal commissions into the James Packer-backed group’s suitability to run its Melbourne and Perth casinos as bumps on the road to redemption after it was found unfit to open its Sydney casino by the NSW Bergin inquiry.