More than 700 people to be banned from Crown Sydney
NSW Police will inform more than 700 people banned from The Star Casino that they are also barred from Sydney’s newest night spot, Crown at Barangaroo.
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More than 700 “undesirables”, including outlaw motorcycle gang members and organised crime figures, will be banned from Sydney’s Crown casino — even if they live there.
The banning orders will extend to the entire Crown precinct at Barangaroo, including the restaurants and bars that have attracted a host of colourful Sydney identities since the establishment opened its doors in late December.
Anyone once banned from The Star Casino in Pyrmont won’t be welcome at Crown either.
“Historically casinos have been attractive to organised crime and money laundering. It has been a place where they want to be,” Casino and Racing Investigation Unit Detective Chief Inspector Grant Raper said.
“Serving these s81 notices on organised crime, if they are going down to launder money, it is one way to suffocate their ability to do that.”
Under section 81 of the Casino Control Act, the NSW Police Commissioner can direct that a casino exclude specific people. These orders — based on intelligence, criminal histories and associations — can’t be challenged or appealed.
NSW Police are in the process of notifying the 763 people already banned from The Star that they can’t go to Crown. Anyone slapped with an exclusion order who lives in the residential apartments at Crown will still be able to dine at the restaurants.
However, they will only be able to use a residential entrance and can’t step foot on the gaming floor once it opens. The casino at the $2.2 billion Barangaroo development remains closed after a year-long inquiry found Crown was unfit to hold a casino licence.
Despite the unoperational gaming floor, several bikies and underworld figures have been spotted dining and staying at Crown since it opened, according to police sources.
One prominent Sydneysider was asked to leave one of Crown’s restaurants last month because he had an exclusion order against his name.
Asked how he felt about being on Crown’s hit list he told The Saturday Telegraph: “That’s a shame, I’ve heard they have a great laundry service.”
Licensing police patrol the precinct regularly in a bid to identify anyone who shouldn’t be there.
Comanchero OMCG sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed was charged for slapping a man at Crown’s a’Mare upmarket Italian restaurant.
The 40-year-old, who already had an exclusion order at The Star, was a guest at a friend’s birthday on January 16. After his brief bust up in the marble bathroom, which was captured on CCTV, most of Zahed’s fellow guests were banned from Crown too.
“As a result of the incident at the Crown involving OMCG, police have identified a large majority of the persons of interest involved who have been issued a withdrawal of licence (restricting entry),” a police spokesman said. “They are being assessed for a Section 81 Commissioners Exclusion.”
The exclusion orders were used heavily several years ago against Rebels OMCG members who were turning up at The Star and intimidating staff and punters.
The NSW Police Organised Crime Squad is also expected to recruit two analysts to deal specifically with intelligence, including assessing grounds for s81 orders, surrounding Crown.
These positions, funded by the independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, already exist within the squad in relation to The Star Casino. Almost all of the 763 are Australian citizens with some listed on the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and Australian Federal Police intelligence-based priority target list as criminal suspects. According to NSW Police figures, 27 people banned in 2019-20 were interstate figures suspected of a range of criminality or suspected links to organised crime while five employees of The Star have also been banned since 2020.
Police note there have been “numerous” other employees charged with various offences in this date range which did not validate a nomination for an s81.
The police mail out could take several weeks given the bans might have been in place for years and those subjected to them may have moved homes, interstate or overseas. Thousands of people, such as problem gamblers, are excluded from Australia’s casinos but being barred entry under law relates to more serious allegations, including having a criminal record to links to organised crime and terror groups.
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