On January 21, the New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) will launch a public inquiry into the status of Australia casino giant Crown Resorts. Crown’s license may have been breached when Crown honcho James Packer sold a 20 percent stake to his friend and onetime business partner Lawrence Ho, head of Hong Kong-based Melco Resorts & Entertainment.
Last May, through his private company, Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH), Packer sold the stake Ho for $1.76 billion. At issue is Ho’s family—he is the son of Macau gaming kingpin Stanley Ho, long linked to Chinese organized crime. Ho has long insisted he operates independently of his father, now a reclusive 98-year-old, and Melco passed Australian probity checks previously when it formed a joint venture in Macau with Crown.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, “longstanding Packer family lieutenants” Guy Jalland and Michael Johnston will be in the hot seat for the inquiry. Jalland, a Crown director and CPH’s chief executive, worked for James Packer and his late father Kerry Packer for more than 20 years. Johnston is a Crown director and CPH’s finance director.
The ILGA inquiry will also examine Crown’s links to other alleged organized crime figures following reports by The Age, the Herald and 60 Minutes that it did business with junket operators backed by Asian crime gangs.
Packer stepped away from the family business in 2018 to deal with mental health problems, about which he has been surprisingly candid. He returned to Sydney last week to check the progress of his massive $2.4 billion Crown Sydney casino resort project in Barangaroo, and told The Australian that he will attend the ILGA inquiry if he’s called. Packer controlled 47 percent of Crown shares before the sale to Melco last May. A 10 percent tranche has already changed hands, but a second tranche has been put on hold until the inquiry is completed. Melco has said it is interested in a full takeover of Crown.
Galland and Johnston, who are involved both with Crown and CPH, may be grilled due to their presumed knowledge about banned “entities and individuals” tied to Melco that would violate the terms of Crown’s license.
Among them is Great Respect Ltd., a major Melco shareholder. Melco disclosed Great Respect as holding a relevant interest in Crown when it lodged an ASX substantial holder notice for its Crown investment in June.
