‘All too cosy’: Crown Melbourne given two-year extension on gambling reform

Criminals will be free to keep betting cash on blackjack and roulette tables at Crown Melbourne after the Victorian government agreed to delay by two years the casino’s deadline for meeting a royal commission recommendation designed to stop money laundering.

Under legislation introduced to parliament this week by Police Minister Anthony Carbines, Crown will have until December 2027 to enforce mandatory carded play on its table games – an integrity reform the government previously announced would be in place by the end of this year.

While Crown insists technology to shift traditional casino games from cash to managed accounts does not exist and the previous deadline would have resulted in significant job losses from its Melbourne operations, the extended timeline has frustrated gambling-reform advocates and some Labor MPs.

Carded play enables gamblers to set limits on how much money they are prepared to lose before they start betting, and punters must have a casino membership to gamble under the system.

It has been used on all electronic gaming machines at Crown since the end of 2023 and will next month be expanded to cover electronic table games.

Gambling Alliance Reform spokesman Tim Costello commended these changes but questioned why the government was giving the casino more time to fix a problem it had agreed to fix four years ago.

“The royal commission found they shouldn’t retain a licence unless they do these things,” Costello said. “It is all too cosy with an ex-minister chairing the Crown board and Labor seeming to look after their mates.”

Former Labor government minister-turned-Grand-Prix boss Martin Pakula stepped into his new role as chair of Crown Melbourne last month. Two sources with knowledge of the casino’s discussions with the government about changing its reform timeline say the conversation began before Pakula’s appointment.

A Crown spokesperson said the Melbourne casino was the first in the world to mandate both carded play and pre-set loss and time limits on all its poker machines. “Crown is leading the way with responsible gambling measures,” the spokesperson said.

The royal commission into Crown’s suitability to hold a casino licence found in 2021 that the Melbourne casino had engaged in illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative conduct, including underpayment of taxes, helping high-wealth Chinese junketeers circumvent their country’s currency laws and predatory behaviour towards vulnerable people with gambling addictions.

It found Crown Melbourne did not have robust and sustainable systems to deter money laundering, which is a significant integrity risk at all casinos.

One of its central recommendations to combat money laundering was for carded play to be used for all gambling at the Southbank venue. Royal commissioner Ray Finkelstein also recommended for Crown Melbourne to phase out the use of cash on all transactions of $1000 or more.

Following submissions from the government about the complexities of moving to a carded system for table gaming, Finkelstein did not set a hard deadline for reform.

In December 2023, the state government’s then-minister for casino, gaming and liquor regulation, Melissa Horne, issued a statement declaring that mandatory carded play would be implemented across all table games by December 2025.

“Those who think they can get away with criminal activity like money laundering are wrong – these changes are about tracking, stopping and prosecuting this illegal activity,” Horne said at the time.

Horne has since been replaced in the portfolio by Enver Erdogan.

Carbines, in introducing amendments to the Casino Control Act and Gambling Regulation Act, told parliament this week the proposed changes would strengthen casino oversight.

Opposition Leader Brad Battin told this masthead on Tuesday the Coalition had not decided whether to support the legislation as the proposed changes had not yet been considered by shadow cabinet.

The government’s offer of an extended time frame for Crown to move to carded play on all gaming follows its decision to not include mandatory loss limits on its trial of carded play across 43 pubs and clubs in Melbourne and Ballarat starting next month.

The design of that trial prompted the Alliance on Gambling Reform to withdraw its support. On Tuesday night, the City of Monash, one of three local government areas where venues are involved in the trial, also pulled its support after a council vote.

The proposed casino legislation has divided the Labor caucus, with two government MPs – unauthorised to discuss internal party discussions – confirming it had caused significant disquiet about the government’s commitment to gambling reform.

Crown Melbourne expressed concern to senior government figures that enforcing carded play and mandatory loss limits on electronic gaming machines inside the casino but not at local pubs is having a detrimental impact on its business.

It has privately warned that if it was compelled to adopt cardless play at all tables by the end of this year, it would be forced to close parts of its gaming floor and retrench up to 1200 workers.

Stephen O’Bryan, KC, the founding commissioner of Victoria’s peak anti-corruption body, last year finished his term as “special manager” responsible for overseeing Crown’s transformation into a fit licence-holder. In his final report, he concluded that Crown had addressed its previous failings.

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