By Colin Kruger
Crown Resorts has received the green light to open its casino operations at Barangaroo just days before the group is taken over by US private equity giant Blackstone, but it has yet to confirm when gambling operations will commence.
The NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) granted Crown a conditional licence for its casino on Wednesday that runs until December 31, 2023. Crown will then be reassessed to see if it is suitable to hold an unconditional licence.
ILGA chairman Philip Crawford acknowledged that the complete clean-out of Crown’s board and senior executives signified the casino operator’s significant progress with reforms, but said more was needed to prove it is suitable to hold the licence.
Crown has been given a conditional licence to open its Sydney casino.Credit: Peter Rae
“They can’t say they’re suitable day one,” he said. “We want to see them operating. Particularly, embedding in their culture. The things they’ve told us they’re going to do.”
Crawford said the actual opening date for the Barangaroo casino is a matter for Crown and its new owner.
“It will be a matter for them now, in consultation with Blackstone, as to when they actually commence gaming,” he said.
Crown Barangaroo opened in December 2020 with its five-star hotel and a number of bars and restaurants.
Multibillion-dollar payout
The takeover this Friday by Blackstone will see Crown investors including James Packer pocket a multibillion-dollar payout from the new owners. Packer alone will receive $3.3 billion from the deal, ending a nightmare that began in 2016 when Crown staff were arrested by Chinese authorities.
Crown chief executive Steve McCann said the company was still finalising an opening date for its casino operation.
“Over the past 15 months, we have worked closely with ILGA to ensure we have the right measures in place for the commencement of gaming in Sydney, and we will continue to work with them on our reform program to showcase our suitability as a casino operator and demonstrate our ability to deliver exceptional experiences in a safe and responsible environment,” he said in a prepared statement.
“We will now finalise our opening plans and look forward to shortly announcing the details and timing of our launch.”
Crown’s casino licence for Barangaroo was suspended in late 2020 amid the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority’s damning public inquiry into its operations, which found Crown was unfit to operate casinos.
The inquiry’s report, released in February last year, found Crown needed a management overhaul if it ever wanted to hold a casino licence, and the state’s gambling regulator should reconsider Packer’s involvement.
It said it was obvious that Packer, as a 36 per cent shareholder in Crown, exercised the “real power”, which had “disastrous consequences for the company”.
It also called on NSW to establish the Independent Casino Commission, a “dedicated, stand-alone, specialist casino regulator with the necessary framework to meet the extant and emerging risks for gaming and casinos”.
The ILGA has already approved Blackstone’s $8.9 billion acquisition of Crown, and the private equity group has received probity approval from all of the states in which Crown operates.
The payday for Packer comes more than a decade after he started a campaign to build what was then described as a VIP gambling room inside a luxury hotel on Sydney Harbour.
Packer was approached for comment on the successful approval of Barangaroo’s licence.
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