Warning to other operators
Crown Resorts executive Jason O’Connor, who was arrested last fall with 18 other employees and convicted of illegally marketing gaming in Mainland China, is a free man. O’Connor was the last jailed Crown employee to be released in the case, which made headlines around the world and was seen as a warning from Beijing to other casino operators to abide by the law.
According to the Herald Sun newspaper, O’Connor left a Shanghai detention center August 12 and was taken immediately to the airport. He was officially deported.
Crown Executive Chairman John Alexander cheered the news, saying, “We are very pleased that our employees are being reunited with their families. Crown is deeply appreciative of the support provided by our legal counsel over the last few months and thanks the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Australian government for their professionalism and assistance.”
The Herald Sun called O’Connor “a lucky man” in that Chinese courts meted out a lesser sentence to him than befell a group of South Korean casino employees arrested for the same crimes in 2015. The newspaper also said the arrests took place because “Crown got greedy” and played fast and loose with the rule of law. Usually high rollers visit foreign casinos with the help of junket runners, intermediaries the Australian casino company apparently tried to do without.
In October 2016, China’s Public Security Bureau police rounded up Crown staffers in four cities. O’Connor and his colleagues Jane Pan Dan and Jerry Xuan received 10-month and nine-month sentences for marketing gambling, but released them based on time served before their convictions in June.
It’s not yet known if the prosecutions will affect Crown’s domestic operations or O’Connor’s ability to continue in his former role, or in the gaming industry in any capacity. The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation said it was “currently considering the outcome of this matter” before making a decision to investigate Crown.
The case is “complex,” said Peter Cohen, former chief executive of the VCGLR, “because the law that has been broken is not gaming law of Australia.”
Macau gaming expert Ben Lee said Crown was “doing what everybody was doing. The irresponsible part came in to the level of aggressiveness they exerted in marketing in China. It was well beyond anybody else.”
The company continues to pay a steep price for its transgressions, having seen its international VIP business fall by half since the arrests. Crown has since pulled out of its Chinese business to concentrate on the Australian market, and in May, said it raised $987 million by selling off the last of its stake in Melco Resorts. That was a joint venture partnership between Crown honcho James Packer and Macau gaming magnate Lawrence Ho.
O’Connor’s release marks “the end of a long and arduous journey for Crown,” Sudhir Kale of GamePlan Consultants told Bloomberg News. “The company has well and truly paid its dues by way of fines, huge legal costs, drop in market capitalization, and the emotional trauma experienced by its employees while in prison. Other operators have learnt from Crown’s example, and their marketing efforts in China will be a lot more sedate.”
