Victorian Government blows up state gambling regulator to hold Crown Resorts to account
The Andrews government will create a new gaming regulator after a slew of inquiries into Melbourne casino operator Crown Resorts highlighted the failures of the current one.
The Victorian government – still reeling from the embarrassment of the NSW Bergin inquiry – has blown up the state’s gaming regulator in an attempt to seize back control of Crown Resorts’ flagship Melbourne casino.
Victorian Gaming Minister Melissa Horne on Tuesday said the current regulator – the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation – would be eliminated in favour of a dedicated gaming regulator with a division focused on holding Crown Resorts to account.
“We said we’d take action to strengthen casino oversight, and that’s what we’re doing with the establishment of a new gambling and casino regulator,” she said.
Ms Horne said the new entity would be called the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC.)
“Unethical practices in the gambling industry won’t be tolerated – the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission will provide robust regulation of the Melbourne casino and wider gambling activity across the state,” she said.
It comes after NSW’s Bergin inquiry into Crown Resorts last year embarrassed the Victorian government by unearthing evidence of criminal activity and money laundering at Crown’s Melbourne casino, as well as the company’s inability to prevent it happening.
The inquiry – which also ruled Crown was not suitable to operate its $2.2bn Sydney casino – prompted the Daniel Andrews-led Victorian government to establish its own royal commission into Crown Resorts in February.
But noticeably, the operations of the VCGLR were not included in the terms of reference, despite a similar West Australia royal commission into Crown Perth pledging to examine the conduct of its own regulator.
That royal commission has uncovered further instances of illegal activity of Crown Melbourne, and also revealed that the VCGLR failed to uncover Crown’s years-long underpayment of state gaming tax.
Ex-VCGLR casino inspectors have also recently gone public about their frustration with the regulator’s perceived inability or unwillingness to tackle reports of money laundering and loan sharking on the Crown Melbourne gaming floor.
Several of these inspectors said the regulatory decay set in when the VCGLR was created in 2012 through the merger of the Victorian liquor and gaming regulators.
In response, the VCGLR has appointed prominent QC Ian Freckleton to conduct an independent investigation into the regulator’s own conduct.
Ms Horne said the merger of the gaming and liquor regulators had “been a failed experiment” and the establishment of the new organisation was about “undoing” that failure.
“What this will do is provide us with a sharp focus and a dedicated division within the new regulator that focuses directly on regulating the casino,” Ms Horne said.
“There’ll also be another arm of that commission that looks at gambling and regulating that.
“We’ll be removing liquor from the new commission, and also having a sharper focus on harm minimisation.”
Ms Horne said the VCGLR would continue its work for the time being, with further details about the new regulator to be announced after the royal commission into Crown reports in October.
But the move was already creating confusion by Tuesday afternoon. VCGLR lawyer Peter Rozen QC said the regulator would not express a view on Crown’s suitability to run its Melbourne casino to avoid prejudicing its successor.
Originally published as Victorian Government blows up state gambling regulator to hold Crown Resorts to account
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