NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello confident taxpayers ‘won’t foot Crown bill’

Crown could claim significant damages, but the NSW government believes the ‘fundamental terms’ of its deal are now in question.

NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello during budget estimates. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

The NSW government is confident that taxpayers will not have to foot a compensation bill to Crown Resorts if it makes changes to the company’s license to operate its Sydney casino under the terms of a deal signed with the gaming giant more than half a decade ago.

If the license is revoked or changed in the coming months, a clause in the contractual agreement between Crown and the state government could allow the casino to claim up to 10.5 times in damages lost.

But the findings of the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority inquiry into the company resulted in its commissioner, former NSW Supreme Court Judge Patricia Bergin, recommending the NSW government take a host of actions to crack down on the risk of money laundering through the venue.

Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello – whose portfolio encompasses state gambling venues – faced budget estimates on Monday and said he believed the government could make the recommended changes without triggering the compensation clauses.

“The fact that there has been demonstrable evidence of money laundering really puts into question the fundamental terms of the license in the first place,” he said.

“I think that the report of Bergin is robust enough to demonstrate that there needs to be reform at Crown.”

When grilled by the opposition on who wrote the clause in 2014, Mr Dominello said he would take the question on notice, but defended the clause for its commercial and contractual merit.

“It wouldn’t have been a figure plucked from the air, it would have been based on commercial terms.”

The completed Crown Tower at Barangaroo. Picture: Nikki Short

The Bergin Inquiry found last month that Crown was unsuitable to hold a casino license for its $2.2 billion Barangaroo casino, amid findings of money laundering and poor governance.

The scope of Ms Bergin’s findings and the evidence of criminal activity unearthed through the inquiry hearings has since triggered the West Australian and Victorian governments to announce royal commissions into Crown’s operations.

Mr Dominello said he was unaware whether similar contractual clauses applied to Star Casino in Sydney, and added it is now up to the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority to work with Crown to “find a way forward”.

Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority chief Philip Crawford told budget estimates the compensation clause was not unusual given the casino conglomerate’s need to protect shareholder interests.

“I don’t find the agreements with Crown unusual in their commercial sense because they were investing a couple of billion dollars of infrastructure in this state, so they had certain commercial issues that they had to protect,” Mr Crawford said.

The NSW government is currently considering recommendations made by the Bergin Inquiry.