Conditional casino licence to allow Crown to open Barangaroo

James Packer’s dream of opening a new casino in Sydney, worth these days around $2.2bn, will soon be a reality just as the billionaire sells Crown Resorts.

A decade after James Packer met with then NSW premier Barry O’Farrell over lunch at Alan Jones’s apartment to hatch plans for a new casino in Sydney, Crown Resorts’ $2.2bn complex at Barangaroo has gained regulatory approval to open its gaming floor.

The NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority on Wednesday granted Crown a conditional licence to operate its casino under strict conditions.

It comes after an explosive inquiry revealed Crown had facilitated potentially billions of dollars of money laundering and other organised crime, sparking the exodus of most of its board and executive, with Mr Packer forced to sell down his 37 per cent stake in the company.

Mr Packer is yet to decide whether he will move into his $60m apartment in the Barangaroo complex that has become Sydney’s newest landmark – described as his legacy to the city – built on land initially set aside for a public park.

On Friday, he will end his family’s decades-long association with Crown when US private equity giant Blackstone formally takes over the company, after shareholders overwhelmingly backed an $8.9bn takeover.

Mr Packer will reap about $3.2bn from the deal.

Philip Crawford. Picture: Joel Carrett

The delay in gaining approval to open its gaming floor follows The Australian revealing that several senior NSW state cabinet members were concerned about giving Crown a licence.

On Wednesday, ILGA chairman Philip Crawford said the conditions imposed on Crown were a world-first and the regulator had worked with the company for more than a year to ensure it would not relapse into its past wrongs.

Mr Crawford said there were “pages and pages” of rules for Crown, but the specifics had not been released as they were “probably commercial in confidence”.

In general, the restrictions on Crown will include betting limits on gaming tables and an onus on the company to know the identities of gamblers and the source of their funds.

“It’s a very unusual set of circumstances in Australia and probably around the world,” Mr Crawford said. “I think you can assume if it’s best practice, we would be imposing them on anyone who wants to come into the state.”

Despite opening the resort at Barangaroo in late 2020, Crown has been prevented from using the gaming floors after an ILGA-initiated inquiry concluded it was not suitable to hold a licence to operate a casino in Sydney.

The Bergin inquiry was established after Mr Packer’s Consolidated Press Holdings agreed in 2019 to sell a 19.9 per cent stake in the company to Melco Resorts, a company associated with Stanley Ho, a Hong Kong businessman with alleged links to criminal gangs.

Mr Crawford said the Bergin inquiry highlighted the “scale and scope of issues to be remediated by Crown, with potentially billions of dollars having been laundered through its casinos”.

He said the conditional licence did not mean Crown was yet to regain its suitability to hold a NSW casino licence. “We still can find them unsuitable after 18 months, two years. If we’re not satisfied they’re suitable, we can go into a process which ultimately finds they are unsuitable,” he said.

Crown chief Steve McCann at Barangaroo in Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

“We haven’t found them suitable – we’ll look at that at the end of the conditional period.”

ILGA will meet regularly with Crown and financial investigators Kroll as part of oversight of the company’s movement towards a full licence for its operations.

Mr Crawford had previously said Crown could receive its licence in Sydney by the end of 2021, but a state government cabinet vote on the proposal was delayed amid disquiet from several senior cabinet members.

Cabinet did not come to a decision and the matter was deferred until at least June 20, sources said, with ILGA announcing the conditional approval on Wednesday.

Mr Crawford said Sydney’s Star Casino – which has been the subject of a royal commission-style inquiry that exposed unethical conduct, including misleading NAB and the Bank of China as well as doing business with patrons with links to Chinese criminal gangs and suspected money laundering – should closely watch the conditions slapped on Crown.

He said he would wait until Adam Bell SC, who is overseeing the inquiry into Star, completed his final report. “You should expect we will impose operating procedures on this level, otherwise I’ll have to leave the Star until I get Bell’s report, maybe at the end of August,” he said

Crown chief executive Steve McCann said the granting of conditional approval was an “important day” and the company was finalising an opening date of the Barangaroo gaming floor.

“Our customers and people have been eagerly awaiting this announcement for some time and cannot wait to share the full Crown Sydney experience with the world,” he said. “Our vision is to become one of the most respected operators of integrated resorts anywhere in the world.

“Since it opened, Crown Sydney has provided … an unrivalled level of luxury accommodation, restaurants and bars and with the opening of gaming, we can offer a full suite of world-class facilities.”