Crown Casino keeps its licence, but warned to improve its responsible gaming practices

CROWN has been given the green light to keep its casino licence, despite an ongoing probe into allegations it unlawfully allowed gamblers to continuously play pokies.

CROWN has been given the green light to keep its casino licence, despite an ongoing probe into allegations it unlawfully allowed gamblers to continuously play pokies.

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A Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation review — carried out at least every five years — found Crown remained “suitable” to hold its casino licence.

But the review warned that the casino needed to do better in responsible gambling and institutional governance, and made 20 recommendations.

The review, released yesterday, revealed that between 2013 and last year Crown was slapped with a series of fines, including five for minors having been detected in the casino.

One $20,000 fine was imposed after a minor was found in the exclusive Mahogany Room on New Year’s Eve in 2013.

Crown Casino has been warned to improve its responsible gambling and institutional governance amid 20 regulations.

Crown was also fined $300,000 last year for tampering with pokies in a “trial” of blanking plates to change playing options.

It was among allegations first aired by Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie, who also alleged that Crown had unlawfully allowed gamblers to play continuously on poker machines.

The VCGLR is continuing to investigate that latter allegation and said it had not been considered as part of the review.

“The subject matter of these allegations is outside the scope of this review, as it is currently being investigated by the VCGLR,” the report said.

Crown Melbourne chairman John Alexander said in a letter to the VCGLR, and published as an ASX statement, that “a wide range of other allegations made by Mr Wilkie” had been “either misconceived or not substantiated”.

Crown Casino has been warned to improve its responsible gambling and institutional governance amid 20 regulations.

He said the casino accepted all 20 of the report’s recommendations.

The report also flagged rising assaults and thefts in the past year, 68 child left unattended in 2017 and an average of two reports of families violence each month.

Alliance for Gambling Reform’s Tim Costello said it “should have gone harder”.

“If the government was proud of its decisive interventions and hard-hitting regulations, it wouldn’t have dropped this at 3pm on a Friday afternoon,” he said.

“The recommendations were weaker than we were hoping for.”

Gaming Minister Marlene Kairouz said in a statement that she expected the commission to “carefully monitor” Crown’s implementation of the recommendations.

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