Crown to expand casino 'oversight' after probe slams gambling risks

James Packer's Crown Resorts is proposing to make its directors more responsible for oversight at its flagship Melbourne casino after a state government investigation found the gaming giant was failing to monitor and intervene in problem gambling.

Following a meeting at Crown's Southbank casino last month, officials from the Victorian gambling watchdog confirmed the company had submitted a program of reforms designed to "fully engage" its independent directors in proactive strategic oversight at the nation's biggest casino.

Crown Resorts' flagship casino in Melbourne's Southbank.Credit: Carla Gottgens

The annual meeting between Crown executives and the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) was the first since the regulator completed its wide-ranging five-yearly review of Crown's suitability to hold the state's sole casino licence.

While backing Crown's suitability, the report outlined a raft of serious shortcomings and stressed the need for Crown to make improvements to its governance and management in order to meet its commitment to being a leader in responsible gambling practices.

The regulator in its report said it was "not confident" that Crown had sufficient staffing to proactively intervene and offer assistance to gamblers at risk of harm, while describing its policy of only intervening after gamblers spent 16 or 24 hours continuously gambling as "very conservative" and not conducive to responsible gambling.

It also highlighted a need for improvements in Crown’s regulations around money-laundering risks, and its prevention of criminals and problem gamblers who were subject to "exclusion orders" from accessing the casino.

The VCGLR confirmed that Crown had now moved to improve its board procedures in response to the regulator's findings that it should set up a charter for directors, ensure board committee chairs were "properly qualified" and it develop "a risk appetite with appropriate monitoring" to improve the company's institutional governance.

The Crown board includes former federal minister Helen Coonan, prominent businessmen Harold Mitchell and Geoff Dixon and former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou.

Crown had also moved on a recommendation to give the regulator greater visibility on the reporting and decision-making relationships between all of the boards, committees and executive meetings responsible for or with oversight of casino functions.

The VCGLR said it was now considering Crown's proposed responses to the two recommendations.

"The remaining 18 recommendations are not yet due for completion," the regulator said.

Crown's executive chairman, John Alexander, said the annual meeting between the company and the VCGLR went "very well".

He said Crown was making progress in the implementation of all of the regulator’s recommendations, some of which were already in progress before the report was handed down.

"There were 20 recommendations, we've accepted all of them," he said.

Another of the VCGLR's recommendations was to expand the rollout of facial-recognition security cameras at entrance points to the casino in order by July 1 to "strengthen perimeter control" and improve the detection of excluded patrons attempting to enter or remaining in areas of the casino

Mr Alexander said the rollout of the special facial-recognition technology was "in progress".

"We've increased the number of cameras here to about 50," he said.