What Crown Resorts royal commission findings will mean for customers

Mandatory ID tracking of customers and all their bets plus restrictions on pokies – gaming at Crown Melbourne is set for a shakeup.

The final report of Victoria’s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts has found the James Packer-backed group unsuitable to operate its Melbourne casino, but has given it two years to reform itself under the supervision of a special manager. (Photo by William WEST / AFP)

Gaming at Victoria’s only casino will never be the same, with the state’s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts recommending sweeping changes to how long punters will be able to gamble in the facility, and how much they’ll be able to spend by doing it.

The changes, recommended by the royal commission’s chief Raymond Finkelstein in the commission’s final report, will also see every Crown customer subject to stricter identity checks and be made to carry a card that tracks their play time and spend.

Mr Finkelstein said the reforms were necessary as the commission’s hearings earlier this year unearthed evidence of multi-day gambling binges, loan sharking and possible money laundering at the Melbourne casino.

“Crown Melbourne had for years held itself out as having a world’s best approach to problem gambling. Nothing can be further from the truth,” he said.

“The Commission heard many distressing stories from people whose lives were ruined by gambling but whose situation might have been improved if casino staff had carried out their obligations under Crown Melbourne’s Gambling Code.”

The report recommends that all Crown patrons be made to use a card when gambling that can be used to collect data relating to player time, turnover, wins and losses and “such further information as the regulator reasonably requires for anti-money laundering and Responsible Service of Gaming purposes.”

He has also recommended that “all persons” entering the gaming floor be required to verify their identity, with customer data to be retained by Crown, potentially to be shared with the Victorian and Federal Police under a proposed mandatory data-sharing protocol to help stamp out criminal presence at the casino.

Punters wanting to make a bet of more than $1000 will have to use a card, with Mr Finkelstein proposing that Crown “phase out the use of cash” for transactions under that threshold.

The recommendation will further remove the ability to use cash in Australian casinos, with Crown and rival casino operator The Star Entertainment Group having already promised NSW’s Gaming Regulator that they will phase in cashless gaming at their Sydney casinos.

The most explicit changes relate to Crown’s fleet of more than 2500 pokies, or electronic gaming machines (EGMS), which represent almost 10 per cent of all machines in Victoria.

Victoria’s voluntary YourPlay precommitment scheme should become “a full, mandatory, binding, precommitment system for Australian residents gambling on EGMs at the Melbourne Casino,” according to Mr Finkelstein.

Under the changes, Australians using the casino’s machines would have to set a daily, weekly or monthly time and loss limit which, if reached, bans the punter from changing the limits or gaming on a machine for 36 hours.

If no limit is selected, Crown must use a default preset loss limit prescribed by state law.

Additionally, no punter will be able to gamble on a pokie for more than 12 hours in a 24 hour period and if they do, they must take a 24 hour break.

No Crown customer will be permitted to gamble continuously on a pokie for more than three hours, or for more than 36 hours a week.

Gaming at Crown Casino in Melbourne will be subject to time and wager limits.

Mr Finkelstein also recommended restrictions on other types of play at the casino, like table games.

He proposed a new gambling code be introduced that will give the gaming Minister the discretion to set play periods, prescribe how long a break should be, and identify when staff should intervene with a patron engaged in an extended gaming session.

“Different rules will be needed for different gambling products,” Mr Finkelstein said.

It is not just Australian gamers who will have to game differently under the new rules.

Foreign high rollers won’t be able to come to Crown under third-party international “junket” tours anymore, with Mr Finkelstein recommending they be banned over money laundering risks.

NSW’s Bergin Inquiry found many junket operators had links to organised crime, raising the risk of Crown’s casinos being used to launder money.

Crown has already ceased all junket partnerships. The Victorian government introduced legislation on Tuesday to ban their use in the state, and has indicated it will pass all the recommendations in the new year.

Originally published as What Crown Resorts royal commission findings will mean for customers