James Packer’s Crown Resorts has managed to hold on to its Victorian licence despite a scathing royal commission report that found it was unfit to run its flagship Melbourne casino due to a litany of “illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative” conduct.
Commissioner Ray Finkelstein said the casino should “not be in control of its own destiny”, but stopped short of recommending Crown be stripped of its licence. Instead he recommended a special manager should oversee the casino for two years before the licence gets ripped up — something the Victorian gaming minister endorsed.
Finkelstein’s report was always going to be a doozy, but those hoping it would be a final blow to a company that seemed too big to fail will no doubt be disappointed.
The report essentially exposed the Victorian government’s biggest employer and political backer as committing a litany of legal and ethical breaches, many in full view of a regulator asleep at the wheel.
“It is difficult to grade the seriousness of the misconduct,” Finkelstein said. “Some was so callous that it is hard to imagine it could be engaged in by such a well-known corporation whose Melbourne casino complex is visited by millions annually.”
Victorian Gaming Minister Melissa Horne said IBAC’s inaugural commissioner Stephen O’Bryan would take on the role, and be given full oversight of the casino’s operations. She refused to say whether the government trusted Crown despite years of evidence to the contrary.
The Andrews government had resisted calls for an inquiry into Crown for years until its hand was forced by the New South Wales Bergin inquiry that found the group unfit to hold a casino licence in that state.
In July it was revealed a letter from the company to the government warned of the “catastrophic” consequences if Crown lost its licence, and that it was “not in the public interest for Crown to fail”.
It prompted a furious response from Finkelstein, who said it was intended to pressure the inquiry. “[It seems] to mean make sure that the commission doesn’t make a particular finding,” he said.
As Crikey wrote at the time, the letter meant it would be difficult for Finkelstein to make a finding without the suspicion that the outcome had been engineered by Crown and the Andrews government.
The royal commission was expected to be a tamer inquiry than the NSW Bergin inquiry, focusing on problem gambling rather than money laundering and Chinese crime gangs. But that quickly proved wrong, with the target of inquiries the company’s very business model was to make money off problem gamblers.
Among the revelations was that 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” but kept being invited back.
Culture was also a key focus, with revelations staff were afraid to speak out for fear of being punished.
But possibly the most damaging evidence was how the Victorian government turned a blind eye to the problems, devising schemes to limit problem gambling that were “wildly unrealistic”.
Will a “special manager” be enough to turn that around? It’s a question Premier Dan Andrews will have to answer.
When this casino was set up by Jeff Kennett and his friends, the outrage was not because it was going to be a link in an organised crime network, but that it would suck money out of the rest of the economy and accelerate the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and massively accentuate social problems which would fall to an under-funded welfare community to cope with. Have we forgotten about this? Is it OK now that a mega-casino sucks every spare penny out of the economy to the point of destorying families and businesses?
A big story there if someone has the balls.
If it were as simple as “a mega-casino sucking every spare penny out of the economy to the point of destroying families and business”, people could vote for the party that had the policy of shutting it down.
But no party has that policy, because it isn’t that simple.
Millions of non-problem gamblers, and their families, visit Crown because they like it.
Ordinary people like to gamble, and think it is their right.
If you’re going to solve the tragedy of probem gamblers, you’ll have to do it by acknowledging the whole picture. Anything less is as unlikely to succeed as this royal commission.
Andrew Wilkie, a rare force for good in the Federal parliament, put forward a bill to limit pokie bets to a low figure. It was all set to be passed, when the Gillard government had the brilliant idea of installing Peter Slipper as Speaker, not needing Wilkie’s support any more, and abandoning his price of help for problem gamblers.
Same suggestion in the Tasmanian parliament, govt not interested. The Labor govt in Tasmania wanted to take poker machines out of pubs and clubs at the election before last, but were beaten by Clubs nsw and the Hotels Assoc money.
Spot on – Wilkie proposed $1 bets so that the punters could have all the “fun” of sitting, drinking and watching wheels spin yet massively reduce their losses.
Unfortunately – for society – their losses are the profits of the AHA, many union own clubs & the RSL so it was a non starter.
Gillard just added injury to insult to propose the risible gamblers’ card – the “It’s Unaustralian!” ads. were probably produced before that abomination of a policy.
Crown Casino did not need to be as big, as chillingly ugly, or where it is. A much smaller casino somewhere else in Victoria would have reduced the number of problem gamblers. Non-problem gamblers had plenty of options previously without this monstrosity. Trips to Flemington, Moama and Hobart were always OK.
Did anyone really think that Crown would be punished? We just love royal commissions – they make us feel that something is being done about our corrupt crony-democracy – and then they are quietly added to the mountain of other reports that were supposed to fix our system. Of course we taxpayers foot the bill and the alleged culprits are given a rap on the knuckles before being appointed to the next (insert board/bank/etc) and everyone is reassured that our democracy works.
Indeed. Indigenous deaths in custody, institutional child abuse, banks, casinos – no matter how appalling the findings, no one is punished or suffers any consequences. Royal Commissions are simply publicly funded gabfests.
The social value of royal commissions is, regrettably, not that necessary reforms follow (although some do). It is the evidence on oath extracted by stacks of evidence collated by the investigation, and investigation no other institution has the capacity or the power to conduct. A world without royal commissions would render all systemic corruption, criminality and incompetence even more invisible than it is now. That is not a world we should want.
The major beneficiaries of RCs, ICACs & similar are the legal profession.
Yes Georgia, I am one of those who was hoping against hope, that Commissioner Finkelstein’s report would provide the Andrews Government with the perfect excuse to deliver the coup de grâce to this loathsome, disgusting and thoroughly despicable den of iniquity that has no redeeming features whatsoever! And readers, please spare me the sob stories about ‘providing employment’ and ‘taxation revenue’
The Andrews Government has missed a great opportunity to shut this immoral gambling den down and it has wimped it – big time! But, to be honest, knowing this Andrews, ALP Government, this is the decision that I was expecting. However, it is nonetheless very, very disappointing.
As a Victorian, I will be giving the ALP the penultimate position on my ballot paper at the next state election as a result of this craven and cowardly decision.
As one of the journalists asked at the press conference given this morning by the Victorian Gaming Minister, Melissa Horne, “What does it take for a Casino to lose its license?”
It seems that the question is a rhetorical one.
At the press conference Gaming Minister Horne adopted that smarmy, mealy-mouthed, unctuous posture, so typical of politicians when they try to justify the unjustifiable. She almost swore, ‘hand-on-heart, hope to die’, that it was all going to be very different in the future. Horne gave us all the assurances that we were given when the Casino was first established (older readers will recall that similar assurances were given when the banks and other public utilities were privatized and deregulated years ago).
We are given the assurances that we are going into a utopian future (utopian all right – for the greed merchants that run these places). Regulators were going to ensure that all would be honest and ‘above-board. These so-called ‘regulators’ were toothless tigers that were there purely for show only. And the ALP tries to create the impression that it is a party for strugglers and working people. What a (expletive deleted) disgrace!!!
Well! Bless my sole: WHAT A SURPRISE.
Maybe the beneficiaries of these criminal acts should be stripped of the proceeds of the crimes they committed otherwise it’s just a case of it was good whilst we could get away with it.
I think they have already gotten away with it. If the nag looks like breaking down in the next 2 years the Victorian Government and/or Crown will apply a jigger in the hope of a hasty and financially gold plated rebirth of this “family” focussed entertainment boondoggle.