Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission slaps two fines on Crown totalling $120m for flouting gambling obligations
The casino group, formerly backed by James Packer, has been hit with two fines totalling $120m for failing to honour its responsible gambling commitments over a 12-year period.
Crown Resorts has been fined $120m from Victoria’s casino regulator over a 12-year spree of flouting its responsible gambling obligations – including providing patrons with devices to gamble non-stop for days.
The penalty – the equivalent of $10m a year – is on top of the $80m fine that the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission slapped on Crown after it disguised gambling transactions on China UnionPay debit cards as hotel charges.
VGCCC chair Fran Thorn said Crown “consistently failed” to intervene to prevent problem gambling. The Victorian Royal Commission into the casino group heard stories of financial loss, suicide attempts, forced sex work and “other hardships experienced by individuals, their families and communities”.
The casino giant – which was formerly backed by James Packer before US private equity group Blackstone took it over in a $8.9bn deal in June – has until early 2024 to prove that it is fit to hold a Victorian casino licence.
The company has embarked on extensive reform, which has included a new board, and executive leadership, while the state government has installed former public corruption watchdog Stephen O’Bryan as a “special manager” who can veto board decisions.
A Crown spokeswoman said the company acknowledged the “seriousness of these historical failures” as “genuinely remorseful”.
Ms Thorn said the latest penalty – which is split across two fines, one the maximum the VGCCC can impose at $100m and another at $20m – was strong enough to deter a relapse at Crown.
“We are confident that Crown is doing everything it can at the moment – or as far as it can – to not allow these things to take place. There are a couple of reasons for that,” Ms Thorn said.
“Firstly, a $100m fine is a pretty big deterrent. Even for a company as large as Crown, it’s a big hit on their profit. Secondly, Crown are on probation at the moment and in about 16 months time, the commission will be making a decision to determine where or not Crown is suitable to hold its licence.
“If it loses its licence, if it is found to not be suitable, then it’s a much bigger hit than $100m.”
The two new fines take the total amount of penalties imposed on Crown since the aftermath of the royal commission to $200m.
Ms Thorn said they were not isolated breaches and part of a “pattern of extensive, sustained and systemic failures by Crown that spanned roughly 12 years”.
“For a long time, Crown failed in its legal and moral obligation to ensure it provided its gambling products and services in a manner which minimised potential harm to its patrons, their families, friends and communities,” she said.
The breaches included consistently failing to intervene to prevent gambling harm, allowing customers to often gamble for long periods without a break, sometimes for more than 24 hours.
This included flouting a statutory direction from the regulator to stop patrons from using plastic picks and other devices to simulate ‘automatic play’ when gambling on certain poker machines.
“Crown even supplied patrons with Crown branded picks,” Ms Thorn said. “For a long time, Crown had promoted itself as having the world’s best approach to problem gambling. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
“We all heard at last year’s Royal Commission, the stories of financial loss of suicide attempts, forced sex work, and other hardships experienced by individuals, their families, and communities.
“The people who gambled for two to three days straight with no one stopping them. The people who stole in order to keep gambling and the people who lost their families because of their addiction. Little if anything was done to stop people from gambling for long periods of time. These are real stories of real harm.”
A Crown spokeswoman said the company had “invested heavily” in its remediation program. “ This includes our responsible gaming resources, which in Melbourne has increased overall staffing levels by nearly 80 per cent in the past 18 months, and more than doubled across Crown Resorts, with more to come,” she said.
“We are committed to becoming a world leader in the delivery of safe and responsible gaming and entertainment. The recently appointed new leadership team at Crown is driving a whole-of-company transformation program, designed to uplift the culture and build a better Crown which exceeds the expectations of our stakeholders.
“While considerable work has been undertaken as part of the reform and remediation program, Crown is the first to acknowledge there is a lot more to be done. We will continue to work cooperatively and constructively with the VGCCC and the government to address this and other issues raised in the Victorian Royal Commission Report.”
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