Patricia Bergin tells Crown Resorts to bring forward rebuttals at hearing
Commissioner Patricia Bergin has challenged Crown Resorts to bring forward the presentation of its submissions rebutting damning allegations.
Commissioner Patricia Bergin has challenged Crown Resorts to bring forward the presentation of its submissions rebutting damning allegations against the company to two days before a crucial meeting next week to consider delaying the opening of its Sydney casino.
Crown’s counsel, Neil Young, told the ILGA inquiry on Monday that the gaming group would not be able to begin its final submissions until next Tuesday, and that it would take the remainder of the week to present.
But Ms Bergin said Crown must begin its submissions on Monday, to allow the public hearings of the inquiry to be concluded by the end of next week.
Crown will be in the midst of presenting its case defending its suitability to retain the Sydney licence when a special meeting of ILGA is convened on November 18 to consider whether the planned opening of Crown Sydney in mid-December should be delayed or curtailed.
NSW Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello on Friday said he was receiving regular updates from ILGA and was encouraged it had scheduled the special meeting to attempt to resolve the conditions of Crown Sydney’s opening in December.
James Packer’s Consolidated Press Holdings, which holds a 36.7 per cent stake in Crown, will begin making its submissions to the inquiry on Wednesday. They are expected to take more than two days.
Crown confirmed on Monday that its Melbourne casino would start the operation of a limited number of electronic gaming machines and electronic table games from Thursday, after receiving approvals from the Victorian government.
The operations will be restricted to 10 designated VIP areas, each with a maximum capacity of 10 patrons and there will be a COVID marshall deployed for each area.
“We have been working for some time with the Victorian government and health authorities to determine how we can safely re-open Crown Melbourne,” chief executive Ken Barton told the ASX.
Crown shares closed 3.6 per cent higher at $9.13 on Monday.
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