After Crown’s evisceration at the Bergin inquiry, you could be forgiven for thinking the gambling giant had no more dirty secrets left. But Victoria’s royal commission into the company is turning out to be a blockbuster, with each day bringing fresh evidence of a company rotten to its core.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The Finkelstein inquiry had promised to be the tamer of the two, focusing on problem gambling — a far more innocuous-sounding problem compared with money laundering and Chinese crime gangs.
But so far it is shaping up as posing a far bigger existential threat to the casino, and observers say it could be the death blow for a company teetering on the edge.
At the heart of the inquiry is Crown’s business model: the exploitation of problem gamblers for profit. With this it turns the very notion of responsible gambling on its head: how can you be responsible for gamblers when you make money from them losing?
The evidence so far suggests you can’t.
On Wednesday it was revealed Crown allowed a high-roller to continue gambling in its infamous Mahogany Room even after he racked up $100,000 in debt. The man had tried to “self exclude” from the casino but kept being invited back.
Culture has also been a key focus, with revelations staff were afraid to speak out for fear of being punished. A Deloitte review that would have probed the full extent of its risk management processes was restricted by senior management to include only “desktop” issues — despite requirements under Crown’s licence to have a strict framework in place.
But possibly the most damaging evidence so far lifts a lid on how the Victorian government has wilfully turned a blind eye to the problems, devising schemes to limit problem gambling that were “wildly unrealistic”, including one that allowed gamblers to set their loss limit at $1 million a day.
The so-called pre-commitment cards touted by the state government and Crown Melbourne as a measure against problem gambling were also often used to unlock poker machines that spin faster and take larger bets.
The evidence could get very bad for the Victorian government, which has long tried to justify the casino in the face of fierce criticism.
That alone should be enough to wake up anyone suffering from Crown fatigue.
Problems for the Government! A lot of us suspected they were ignoring the problems but look at the Opposition. Would one trust them any more?
There are no two ways about it: poker machines are a blight on our society. We have to get rid of them.
There is zero coming out of the Perth Royal Commission – seems like a whitewash! Well, Mc Gowan was a Minister for Racing and Gaming.
The problems all started during the time of Barnett as Premier.
The only poker mchines in W.A.are in the casino.
Not true. For example, see the ABC news report 29 May, “Revelations about junkets, relationships and blurred lines dominate Perth Casino Royal Commission”. It’s a catalogue of sleaze and a servile “regulator” at Crown’s beck and call.
Hopefully this one time the house doesnt win.
Perhaps. But even if Crown is knocked off its perch nothing much will get better while the pollies are addicted to gambling revenues and regulation is just a facade for letting the gambling mafia have whatever it wants. If Crown goes down, most likely it will be bought out and merged with one the other gambling corporations, which will then be more powerful and influential in Australian politics than Crown ever was. In a few years we will look back on Crown’s era as comparitively good times.
When can we ban gambling sponsorship, advertising? the industry is awash with illegal cash. Governments of all persuasions love the gravy train, they must also be held to account.