Lax AML policy also alleged
It looks like another black eye for James Packer’s Crown Resorts.
Three purported whistleblowers have come forward to accuse the Australia-based gaming company of deliberately tampering with slot machines, overlooking drug use, tolerating domestic violence by its high-roller patrons, and failing to enforce strict anti-money laundering measures. All these incidents allegedly took place at Crown’s Melbourne casino resort.
According to the Asia Gaming Brief, independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie brought video evidence to parliament to support the workers’ claims that Crown disabled the “lower debt options” on pokies and had the buttons modified or “shaved down” to allow prohibited autoplay.
“Regrettably the alleged misconduct at Crown is not limited to poker machines,” said Wilkie, a longtime critic of gaming. “Indeed the whistleblowers also allege that the casino avoids Austrac scrutiny of individuals involved in transactions over $10,000, by sometimes tolerating and even encouraging the misuse of identity documents.
“If these allegations are true, then Crown would be facilitating money laundering for any number of nefarious reasons, like tax fraud, drug running and even terrorism.”
Crown denied the allegations and called upon Wilkie and his anonymous sources to “immediately provide to the relevant authorities all information relating to the matters alleged.” The whistleblowers, all apparently former Crown employees, made their claims in a 30-minute video in which their images were blurred and their voices altered. They did not go directly to law enforcement, reportedly because they fear retribution.
“They are understandably quite anxious about the risk they are taking,” Wilkie told reporters. “They thought the safest way to ventilate their concerns was to come to me in the first instance, with the protection of the parliament to allow me to get those allegations out.”
Wilkie said the Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Regulation did nothing to stop the “shocking criminal misconduct” and in fact may have been “covering it up.”
Crown shares fell as much as 8.1 percent on the headlines and traded 4.1 percent lower at AU$11.27 in the immediate aftermath, reported Bloomberg News. The company’s stock has dropped about 2.7 percent this year.
The claims are another roundhouse punch for Melbourne-based Crown, which saw VIP revenues plummet by about half after a scandal in which 19 staffers were arrested in China for illegally promoting gambling. Those workers were held in a Shanghai lockup for almost a year before finally being released in August. After that, Packer sold his stake in Melco Crown Entertainment (since renamed Melco Resorts & Entertainment), shelved his Las Vegas casino plans and said he would focus on his domestic operations.
Roy Wheatley, CEO of gambling consultancy Global Consulting & Development Pty., told Bloomberg that investors are sure to be displeased by the latest crisis. “The allegations bring further concerns on Crown to investors as they are already unhappy with the impact the China incident had on share prices,” he said. “I would expect the government to launch a full-scale investigation on the casino operator under public pressure.”
Wilkie says the alleged misbehavior at Crown Melbourne could “suggest a broader pattern of behavior in the poker machine industry, which would obviously have grave implications for people right around Australia. I call on the federal and Victorian governments to ensure the allegations are investigated thoroughly. The truth will not be uncovered without a parliamentary inquiry, as well as investigations by law enforcement and regulatory agencies.”
Crown issued a statement saying the company “rejects the allegations made today under parliamentary privilege by Mr. Andrew Wilkie MP concerning the improper manipulation of poker machines and other illegal or improper conduct at Crown Casino in Melbourne. Crown calls on Mr. Wilkie to immediately provide to the relevant authorities all information relating to the matters alleged.”
Victorian Greens spokeswoman Colleen Hartland said Crown’s pokie machines should be taken out of circulation until an inquiry takes place.
“These are serious offences and the state government needs to act,” Hartland said. “Crown cannot be allowed to operate pokie machines until an independent audit has been completed.”
