A royal commission in Western Australia (WA) last month reviewed documents and written testimony that alleged loan sharking at the Crown Perth Casino.
According to the Australia Broadcasting Corp. (ABC), one gambler said he had just lost money at the property when a man approached him, saying, “I can lend you $10,000, maybe you can win the money back and we can all go home sweet.”
The gambler accepted the loan but continued to lose, “leading to harassment and death threats from the loan shark,” ABC reported.
In one text message, the loan shark purportedly threatened the gambler with “concrete boots” if he failed to make good on the debt. The man, identified as Stuart, described the loan sharks as “vultures on the floor.”
Over the past five months, the commission has questioned current and former Crown employees and members of the state Gaming and Wagering Commission (GWC) about money laundering and noncompliance by Crown in the state. Problem gamblers added a critical piece in a review process that could cause Crown to lose its gaming license in WA.
A group called Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) said predatory lenders operated with “relative impunity” at Crown Perth. A gambler identified as Aarush told the FCA he was terrified of his lender, who charged a staggering 50 percent interest on the loan. “I can’t go to the police,” he said. “They will come to my house and get my family.”
FCA Director of Policy and Campaigns Lauren Levin noted, “Casinos are not allowed to provide credit. That’s been banned for a long time. Turning a blind eye to those who are providing credit to customers … is a form of willful blindness.”
In a bit of particularly damning testimony, Crown Perth General Manager of Security and Surveillance Brian Lee told the inquiry that in 2020 the casino banned a person known as Patron S who was suspected of loan sharking. But concerns about the patron’s behavior went all the way back to 2009.
In addition to sanctions for Crown, Levin also wants to see an overhaul of the current regulatory system, which she described as a “lame duck.”
“It doesn’t have the tools, it doesn’t have the regulation, it doesn’t have the desire,” she said. “The time for self-regulation is over. The most important change we want to see is a single national gambling regulator … with new legislation that has consumer protection at its core. By having a national regulator, you get rid of that conflict of interest and the regulator will be able to do its job.”
