High stakes gamble by Crown boss

Crown’s latest controversies come at an unfortunate time, with its eligibility for a casino licence to be decided. Picture: Getty Images

Ciaran Carruthers was in his office in Melbourne this week getting on with the business of running Crown Resorts. But for how long?

As we know, the Victorian gaming regulator is investigating an incident at Crown’s Melbourne casino concerning a minor being allowed on the gaming floor.

This follows Crown reporting the incident to the regulator within 24 hours of it occurring, as it is required to do when there is any alleged breach of the Casino Control Act.

In parallel to the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission’s investigation, Crown has engaged an external law firm to conduct a broader assessment of the incident, another alleged incident concerning a drunk patron and the conduct of CEO Carruthers, who is said to have intervened in both events.

Crown Resorts chief executive Ciaran Carruthers.

Crown’s eligibility to hold the casino licence in Melbourne is up for assessment at the end of this year, so to say the timing of the controversies is unfortunate is an understatement.

The Blackstone-owned gaming giant, which for the past two years has been run by a special government-appointed manager while it gets its house in order, is trying to prove to authorities it is a responsible casino operator implementing governance best practice.

The affair has broader implications for Carruthers, who had to clear high probity hurdles set by respective state gaming regulators when he was appointed to the role mid-last year.

Carruthers is an “approved associate” of Crown Melbourne Ltd, which holds the gaming licence in Victoria.

The regulator monitors approved individuals and entities “to ensure their ongoing suitability to be associated with the casino operator”, with the VGCCC indicating it will wait until Crown finishes and provides its broader investigation to the regulator.

Under the Victorian Casino Control Act, associates of the casino operator must be of good repute, having regard to character, honesty and integrity.

If the VGCCC finds Carruthers acted contrary to those principles he could no longer be an approved associate, which would make it hard for him to remain as CEO.

Plenty of water to pass under the bridge on this.

But it’s the worst possible timing.

By mid-January 2024, Crown’s special manager Stephen O’Bryan, KC, will submit a final report to the VGCCC and Gaming Minister Melissa Horne. The report will evaluate Crown’s reform efforts to help the regulator determine whether Crown has returned to suitability to hold the Melbourne casino licence.

High stakes, indeed.

Ciaran’s side hustles

Luckily, Crown’s head croupier Ciaran Carruthers has plenty to fall back on in the event the casino business in Oz doesn’t pan out as hoped.

The 54-year-old Irishman has skills and passions in other areas that could happily see him through to retirement without the headache of regulators and private equity masters.

Before Carruthers came to Melbourne to run Crown he’d been in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau for two decades, rising to the role of chief operating officer at Wynn.

In his time there Carruthers, along with his wife Tess, developed a hospitality side hustle in the form of a joint called The Roadhouse Macau, billed as the home of blues, bikes, rock and booze. We hear there was also an Irish-themed pub in the mix too.

The couple went on to open an offshoot of the concept in The Philippines, The Roadhouse Manila Bay, which they successfully ran for almost 12 years until last year, before Carruthers moved to Oz.

It all flows from Carruthers’ passion for all things motorcycle-related, which has seen the businessman over the years develop an extensive private collection of bikes that he houses in the Adelaide Hills, where the Carruthers family live. In an actual medieval-style faux castle.

The Carruthers now have a home in Melbourne’s Toorak too.

His bike collection has a name – Castambul MC Collection – as well as its own Facebook and Instagram pages, the latter with more than 3000 followers.

“A private bike collection ranging from a fully restored 1927 McEvoy thru to the best of 2023 and beyond … a future retirement business as a museum!” Carruthers’ social media blurb reads.

Over time he’s even mooted what form such an enterprise could take.

“Maybe Adelaide needs another place in the Hills for stopping for a coffee and a bite to eat, while also checking out our collection and maybe even get a service done or the bike detailed, and maybe even include some classics for sale?” Carruthers has posted to the faithful.

He’s got the passion and cash for the two-wheeled hardware, which he says dates back to his father and grandfather, as well as the hospitality track record and Blackstone has kindly shipped him back to Oz.

At least there’s a ready made plan B.

Vexed vote

You’d think after executing the referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament the fine folks at the Australian Electoral Commission would be throwing their feet up in the lead-up to festive season and year’s end.

Alas, the union for creative professionals – the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance – has, via the Fair Work Commission, got the AEC running its 2023 elections for a range of governance positions, nominations for which closed last Friday.

Surely all pretty straightforward for an organisation we entrust to safeguard our democracy via their conduct of free and fair elections for our Australia’s leaders?

Things have gone a bit pear-shaped and the AEC, we hear, has sent out documents with an incomplete list of the MEAA members who nominated for positions, which left some pretty grumpy. It’s all been fixed now, via a new summary of nominations received, but with many of the positions likely to be non-contests, including the vote for federal president of the union’s media section, with incumbent and former ABC senior journalist Karen Percy to be returned unopposed.

Straightforward, really.