At the recent Regulating the Game conference in Sydney, Australia, Crown Resorts CEO Ciarán Carruthers offered an updated outlook for Crown Sydney, and argued that if the property is to succeed long-term, the company must find a way to make the casino component profitable.
In an interview with Inside Asian Gaming, Carruthers noted that the property is “clearly challenged,” in the sense that it was designed primarily with the goal of attracting international—namely Chinese—high-rollers, but that ability has been severely curtailed due to regulatory restrictions over the last few years.
Crown recently announced that it had temporarily closed one of the property’s two gaming floors and reduced the other’s hours of operation in response to the new environment.
The previous business model, which would ideally feature “a multi-millionaire hard core punter in each and every one” of Crown Sydney’s 349 rooms, “is outlawed and is no longer of interest to Crown or Blackstone, so there is a requirement to rethink the business model,” Carruthers told IAG.
The hotel and dining elements of the property are successful but very limited, which means that “making the casino work there is critically important to the viability of Crown Sydney as a business, and without going into detail we are clearly having conversations with government and regulators,” the CEO said.
Despite the fact that Crown Sydney will “absolutely not” look like “what it was originally envisioned to be” again, Carruthers was confident that Crown can “absolutely” make it a profitable business again, per IAG.
An extremely important component of this success will be to return to suitability after being found unsuitable by New South Wales (NSW) regulators in early 2021. Carruthers said a decision is expected to be handed down in the coming weeks.
Per IAG, the CEO said his team has “done the work” to regain full licensure, and, should that happen, there have already been “genuine, meaningful conversations about what that model looks like to ensure the ongoing viability and success of Crown Sydney.”
