Crown royal commission to examine how Melbourne casino deals with problem gambling

How Crown Melbourne deals with problem gambling will be examined at the royal commission investigating whether the casino operator is fit to hold a license in Victoria.

James Packer.

How Crown Melbourne deals with gambling addiction will be examined at the royal commission investigating whether the ­casino operator is fit to hold a ­licence in Victoria.

Commissioner Ray Finkelstein QC said at the opening hearing of the royal commission in Melbourne on Wednesday that gambling had “major adverse impacts on the community”. More than 300,000 Australians had problems with gambling, he said.

Commissioner Finkelstein noted that while gambling contributed about 12 per cent of state-generated taxes, it also attracted petty and street crime, money laundering and the infiltration of organised crime syndicates.

“The impact of gambling is widespread,” he said.

The royal commission was triggered after the Bergin inquiry in NSW found Crown Resorts was unfit to operate a license for its $2.2bn casino in Sydney.

Commissioner Finkelstein said he would examine whether money laundering was still taking place at Crown’s Melbourne casino, whether the casino had breached governance regulations and whether it had breached contractual obligations to Victoria.

He said he had written to Crown Resorts asking whether they accepted the findings of the Bergin inquiry, with the company in response disagreeing that it deliberately and wilfully facilitated money laundering at its Melbourne casino. “The disagreement… may not be material; the aspect of the findings to which objections seem to be taken go to the deliberateness or wilfulness of the conduct concerned.”

Commissioner Finkelstein said he was yet to receive a response to a second letter he sent Crown asking in plain language if it was in breach of the statute that allowed the company to hold a gambling license. “The response to this … will tell me a number of things: the first and most crucial is … whether there have been any breaches, whether Crown has the systems in place that enable them to identify those breaches.”

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Adrian Finanzio SC, said the inquiry would examine the public interest of Crown continuing to operate a casino in Victoria. “There is an expectation on the part of the Victorian community that the casino licensee is operating at all times to the letter and spirit of that regulatory framework,” he said.