Crown Resorts rolls out new measures to stamp out problem gambling at Melbourne casino
Crown Resorts has rolled out new measures to prevent problem gambling at its Melbourne casino.
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Crown Resorts has rolled out new measures to prevent problem gambling at its Melbourne casino, including the introduction of mandatory electronic gaming machine cards that monitor and manage the gambling behaviour of visitors to the venue.
From Thursday, all patrons who use an electronic gaming machine at Crown Melbourne will be required to obtain a Crown Player Card, which they can use to track and manage their gambling activity.
They will be required to set time and loss limits using the Victorian state-wide YourPlay system, allowing them to track and manager their play.
If someone reaches their set limit, they will not be able use a gaming machine at the casino for either a 24-hour or seven-day period.
Casino staff will undertake safety checks when signs of prolonged or unsafe gambling are identified.
In a bid to prevent money laundering activities at the casino, Crown will be required to check the identity of patrons when they sign up for a card.
Crown Resorts chief executive Ciaran Carruthers said carded play would “revolutionise the way our guests engage with gambling and entertainment”.
“Crown’s ambition is to operate the safest casinos in the world, and we are proud to pioneer this transformative and world-first shift with the introduction of carded play at Crown Melbourne,” he said.
“The implementation of carded play begins a new era of transparency and commitment, helping to reshape the gambling landscape and ensure our guests are better able to manage and play within their personal limits.”
The new carded play technology has been rolled out over the last month and is now fully operational.
It builds on earlier changes enforced under the Victorian government’s recent rules to tackle gambling harm, including a requirement for Crown to enforce 15-minute breaks for patrons gambling continuously for three hours.
The changes, which followed recommendations from the 2021 Finkelstein royal commission into Crown, also restrict punters at the casino to gambling for a maximum of 36 hours a week, and require guests to take a day’s break if they’ve been gambling for 12 hours in any 24-hour period at the casino.
As part of its Crown PlaySafe gambling harm prevention program, launched earlier this year, Crown has introduced a self-exclusion program allowing gamblers to prohibit themselves from entering the gambling areas at Crown’s Melbourne, Sydney and Perth casinos, and cashless gaming on electronic table games at Crown Sydney.
Mandatory carded play will be implemented across all table games at the Melbourne Casino by December 2025, and the company is planning to roll out mandatory carded play on electronic gaming machines in Perth.
Victorian Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation Minister Melissa Horne said the latest changes at Crown gave casino patrons more control over their gambling.
“We are delivering nation-leading reforms to protect the most vulnerable from gambling harm and putting the power back into the hands of patrons,” she said.
Earlier this week it was revealed Victoria’s casino regulator was investigating how a minor was allowed to roam the gaming area of Crown’s Melbourne casino, amid a separate internal review into the gaming giant and Mr Carruthers.
Crown, which was taken over by US private equity group Blackstone last year following revelations it failed to prevent money laundering activities at its casinos, confirmed it had engaged an external law firm to conduct the review into claims Mr Carruthers intervened to allow banned and drunk patrons back into the casino after they’d been ordered to leave by security.
Crown is currently awaiting the outcome of reviews into its casino operations.
Stephen O’Bryan KC - the special manager the Victorian government appointed to oversee Crown Melbourne following the royal commission’s damning findings into the group - will lodge his final report with the regulator in January before his two-year term expires in June 2024.
The regulator will then decide if Crown should keep its casino licence.
Similar processes are under way in Sydney and Perth, where state regulators will make decisions about Crown’s licences in those states later next year.
Originally published as Crown Resorts rolls out new measures to stamp out problem gambling at Melbourne casino
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