Australian operator Crown Resorts’ quest to return to suitability is continuing in grand fashion, as the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC) announced April 23 that the company has retained the license for its Crown Sydney casino after first being deemed unsuitable in 2021.
In its ruling, the NICC said the company had “fundamentally reformed its business” with the help of “intensive remediation” efforts over the last three years. The commission said Crown is now back to “operating the casino within the objects of the Act, the requirements of the suitability deed, and in compliance with its regulatory obligations.”
As a result of the ruling, the casino has now established a new license agreement with the NICC as well as the NSW state government that lays out new regulatory and community-focused requirements moving forward.
“There is and will always be room for improvement, but Crown is a changed business that is looking toward the future,” Chief Commissioner Philip Crawford said in the ruling. “Likewise, the NICC is a changed regulator with enhanced powers, a singular focus on casinos, and a mandate to address the risks of harm.”
Crown was deemed unsuitable in NSW and Victoria in 2021 and Western Australia in 2022 for anti-money laundering violations among other shortcomings, but has been making immense progress since, mostly driven by its sale to U.S.-based Blackstone Group in 2022.
The company returned to suitability earlier this month in Victoria for Crown Melbourne, and the latest ruling is another positive step in its development.
“Since opening the Crown Sydney casino in August 2022, we have worked tirelessly to implement wholesale reform across our business, delivering 432 remediation activities to the NICC across key areas, including harm minimisation, financial crime, compliance, risk, and culture,” Crown Sydney CEO Mark McWhinnie said in a statement.
Although company CEO Ciarán Carruthers was pleased with the ruling, saying that Crown is committed to its “ongoing cultural transformation, compliance, and ensuring that we are the safest gambling venue in Australia,” he also noted in a separate interview that the business still faces some steep challenges ahead.
Carruthers told the Sydney Morning Herald that the company has to seriously reconsider its business model for Crown Sydney and its other properties, given that it previously relied heavily on foreign high-rollers who have not come back since the regulatory troubles began.
“We are taking a long hard look at the business,” he said. “The current levels of demand are at a low level. We are focused on getting the business to be commercially viable long into the future.”
He also lamented the fact that the sanctions imposed on Australian casinos have yet to be applied to the country’s bars and clubs, which is where the majority of gaming machines are located.
For example, Crown Melbourne was required to change all of its 2,600 machines to require carded play, but bars and clubs have not been required to do so.
“We fully embrace the need for regulatory change. It’s when these regulations are proven to be viable and have been implemented by us and are yet only imposed on us that it is a bit challenging,” Carruthers told the Herald.
