Gaming watchdog who assessed Star, Crown seen failing own transparency rules
The gaming authority that cracked down on the Star and Crown casinos for noncompliance, has been caught out failing to meet its conflict of interest obligations.
NSW
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The gambling watchdog which found Crown and Star unsuitable to hold a casino licence has been caught out failing to meet its own legal obligations designed to ensure transparency and accountability.
The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) has now published a record of its members’ pecuniary interests disclosures for 2021 and 2022, but only after The Daily Telegraph asked to see the information.
That’s despite legislation governing the ILGA stating that the Authority must keep a “book” of any conflict of interest disclosures, and make that book “open at all reasonable hours to inspection by any person”.
The Telegraph asked on Thursday morning to inspect the book of pecuniary interest disclosures. The book was not available for inspection, as required under the act. When the Telegraph went to the ILGA’s offices in York Street, this masthead was told no-one was available.
The Telegraph was offered an electronic version of the conflict of interest register, which was received 28 hours after the original request.
The register reveals ILGA members declared pecuniary interests or other conflicts in 18 meetings in 2021-22, many of which led to members being excluded from discussions.
Former ILGA chair Phillip Crawford, who now chairs the casino watchdog, declared two conflicts - one relating to Venues NSW, and one relating to Churchills Sports Bar in Kingsford.
One of the two conflicts he declared was related to Churchills Sports Bar, related to a previous professional legal relationship.
Mr Crawford did not participate in two decisions relating to the venue during a July 2022 meeting.
In one decision, the ILGA rejected the venue’s application to reduce its poker machine shutdown period by three hours.
The venue had also applied to increase the size of its gaming room by 47 square metres while not adding any additional machines. This was approved.
Pecuniary interest disclosures for previous years still had not been published on Wednesday.
Mr Crawford told a recent budget estimates hearing that the ILGA did not keep a “book” of conflict disclosures as required under the legislation.
“We do record the conflicts … but there is no book,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the casino commission confirmed that the book had not been available for public inspection before the Telegraph’s inquiries.
An ILGA spokesman blamed the establishment of the casino regulator for the fact that the information was not accessible to the general public.
“As part of the transfer of casino-related functions from the NSW independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) to the new NSW independent Casino Commission (NICC), information on both organisations’ websites is being reviewed to ensure it best meets community and stakeholder needs,” the spokesman said.
Labor spokeswoman Yasmin Catley called on Minister Kevin Anderson to explain the ILGA’s failure to abide by its own legislation.
“The Minister needs to explain how this happened under his watch,” she said.
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