Crown casino inquiry a high-stakes game

Crown Resorts’s links with Asian casino interests will come under the spotlight in an inquiry set to begin in Sydney on Tuesday.

Lawrence Ho and James Packer at a news conference at Melco's Studio City casino resort in Macau in October 2015.

Crown Resorts’s links with Hong Kong casino owner Lawrence Ho and his ties with his 98-year-old father Stanley Ho will come under the spotlight in a high-stakes inquiry by the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority that is set to get under way in Sydney on Tuesday.

The inquiry into Crown’s suitability to hold a restricted casino licence in NSW is being held ­before former NSW Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin, who will have the powers of a royal commissioner to compel witnesses to appear and give ­evidence.

Tuesday will see an opening submission by counsel assisting commissioner Bergin, who is ­expected to include a list of potential witnesses who may be called before the inquiry.

The inquiry said on Friday that public hearings involving the ­calling of witnesses would begin next month.

While Crown is not commenting on the inquiry, it has launched a promotional campaign based on newspaper advertisements this week outlining the 2000 new jobs that will be generated by the opening of its six-star Barangaroo hotel in December and its proposed VIP casino.

Crown also announced this week it would be hiring former NSW deputy police commissioner Nick Kaldas to review its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing com­pliance processes as part of a series of moves to bolster its public image following damaging ­reports by Nine’s Sixty Minutes and Nine’s newspapers last year.

The inquiry was prompted by the media allegations and a deal struck in May last year, potentially worth $1.75bn, for Lawrence Ho’s Melco Resorts to buy a 19.9 per cent stake in Crown.

Nine outlets including the Nine Network, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age ­alleged that Crown or its associates had engaged in money laundering, breached gambling laws and partnered with junket operators with links to drug traffickers, money launderers, human traffickers and organised crime groups.

The allegations were made after James Packer’s CPH Crown Holdings sold 9.99 per cent of its shares in Crown to Melco, with Melco announcing plans to raise its holding in Crown and seek representation on the Crown board.

Crown’s restricted licence to operate a VIP casino in Sydney is conditional on Lawrence Ho’s ­father, Stanley, and some of his associates, not being associates of Crown.

This was an additional condition inserted into the licence in 2014, following a finding by New Jersey casino authorities that Stanley Ho could have connections with triad groups through his Macau casinos.

Stanley Ho is believed to have been banned from entering the NSW casino industry years ago because of allegations around questionable associates built up over decades of running casinos in the former Portuguese colony of Macau.

Crown’s initial restricted licence to operate in NSW was granted at a time when Crown was involved in a joint venture with Lawrence Ho’s Melco in ­casinos in Macau, effectively ­acknowledging that Lawrence Ho was a suitable associate for Crown at the time.

Lawrence Ho, 43, is one of 17 Stanley Ho children by four different wives, a complicated family arrangement that has long been the subject of popular discussion in Hong Kong and Macau.

Lawrence is the son of Stanley’s second wife, Lucina Lam, while Stanley’s present partner, Angela Leong, who has four children with him, is considered the most powerful of the four wives.

The inquiry’s investigations will look into any corporate links between Lawrence Ho and his ­father.

Lawrence Ho moved to Canada as a young boy. He was ­educated in Canada and gradu­ated from the University of ­Toronto before returning to live in Hong Kong.

His stake in the Macau ­casino business came through his links with Packer and the Crown ­casino group, which was given a licence to operate in the city by ­licence holder Wynn Resorts, ­effectively in competition with his father’s casinos in Macau.

The NSW inquiry’s terms of reference require it to “look at the identity of any person who has or will become a close associate of (Crown)” as a result of the Melco share dealings.

It will also look into whether CPH’s sale of shares to Melco in June and its agreement to sell more shares in Crown to Melco constituted a breach of its restricted licence to operate in Barangaroo. One of the areas of inquiry is expected to include Lawrence Ho’s directorship of a company called Lanceford.

It is also expected to look at whether another company, Great Respect, which is closely linked to Stanley Ho, is still an owner of shares in Melco.

Former Crown chairman Packer, who visited Sydney last week, has said he is prepared to give evidence at the inquiry if called.

Lawrence Ho, who is looking to expand his casino interests in the lucrative Japanese market, has told associates he welcomes the inquiry by the NSW authority.

He believes that if his move to buy into Crown is cleared by the inquiry it would help him in any probity inquiry in Japan or other jurisdictions.