.svg)
Body
The Victoria state regulator has slapped a new fine of A$30m ($20m) on casino operator Crown Resorts over customer cheque practices and has ordered another internal probe, extending Crown's nightmare run of punishments for compliance failures.
The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) on Thursday (April 27) ordered Crown subsidiary Crown Melbourne to pay A$30m plus costs over the breaches, as well as ban further use of bank and blank cheques for customer deposits.
The VGCCC also ordered Crown Melbourne to review overall casino handling of bank cheques and launch a general investigation into “any and all” hitherto undisclosed and undocumented practices relating to casino operations, then report any to the regulator.
The ruling follows Royal Commission exposure of the strategy to trade gambling chips for customer bank cheques made out to themselves rather than Crown, with the casino handing over chips before the cheques had time to clear, enhancing the risk of gambling harm and money laundering.
“This was a serious contravention because it was undocumented, long-running and subverted the important controls on the use of cheques at the casino,” the VGCCC said in a statement.
Citing lack of evidence, the VGCCC opted not to fine Crown for possible handling of customer blank cheques to consolidate payment of losses, despite a Royal Commission finding that it likely did so. Instead, the regulator ordered any use of blank cheques to cease.
The VGCCC warned in September when it launched the cheques probe that Crown could face another A$100m fine.
In its decision on Wednesday, the VGCCC said that A$30m was a conservative estimate of the revenue gained by the casino from 2 percent of turnover involving A$1.5bn in bank cheque deposits between the casino’s opening in 1994 and the end of the practice in 2021.
It cited Crown Melbourne’s “recidivism”, lack of disclosure and a willingness to accept changes to internal control statements only if “disciplinary action was likely”.
However, the fine was lower than might have been because the Blackstone Group-controlled company has since withdrawn challenges to the Royal Commission’s findings and acknowledged the need for policy and procedural reform, and produced a commitment to work with the regulator to this end, the VGCCC ruling said.
“This is the second time we’ve taken action on undocumented practices at the casino, and we will investigate further to ensure there are no more,” VGCCC chair Fran Thorn said.
“To be clear, we will not allow the casino to conceal its practices to avoid scrutiny.”
The fine is the third major fiscal punishment for the Melbourne casino across a year of follow-up VGCCC probes in the wake of the Royal Commission, whose report was released in October 2021.
The regulator fined Crown A$80m last May for cashcard scamming and a combined A$120m in November for failing to protect problem gamblers and prevent slot machine tampering. Minus costs, the fines now total A$230m ($152m).
The VGCCC’s predecessor body also fined Crown the then-maximum A$1m on two occasions, during and after the Royal Commission’s operations, for junket-related offences.
Crown remains under the supervision of a special manager appointed by the state government. The VGCCC is preparing a review of its two-year probationary period and whether the company should be allowed to continue to hold its licence.
