Earlier today, one of the largest Australian casino operators – Crown Resorts Ltd – was accused by a local lawmaker of deliberately concealing potential money laundering and owning rigged poker machines. Reportedly, three former employees of the operator have alleged it in rigging slot machines.
According to the allegations, the company has been concealing possible money laundering practices at its largest casino venue, and the state regulatory body has been covering up the operator’s criminal behaviour.
MP Andrew Wilkie’s Allegations
The independent Member of Parliament Andrew Wilkie, who is known for being involved in campaigns against slot machines, provided the Parliament with video statements of three ex employees of Crown Resorts, with all of them accusing Crown Resort of misconduct at its Melbourne-based casino. The videos included claims that Crown Resorts breached financial disclosure laws, as well as its management has not reported some incidents of domestic violence and drug taking by gamblers.
MP Wilkie further claimed that despite the fact that the three employees’ allegations are focused on the Crown Resorts’ Melbourne-based gambling hub, they could suggest there was a larger pattern of such misconduct in the local poker machine business. He alleged the staff of Crown Melbourne for being engaged in what he called “software manipulation” aimed to increase the number of players’ losses on the slot machines offered at the casino, as well as in other illegal interference with the machine.
Furthermore, the casino hub of Crown Resorts in Melbourne was accused in avoiding close monitoring by the AUSTRAC – the governmental financing intelligence agency aimed at anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism – in terms of certain money transactions of more than AU$10,000. AUSTRAC issued a statement regarding the allegations, saying that it takes seriously the accusations, so it intends to examine them in depth.
The regulatory body of the Victoria state – the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation – said it intended to investigate the allegations against the company as part of the current review of the gambling license of Crown’s Melbourne casino venue, which takes place every five years.
The company, on the other hand, issued an official statement denying the allegations of Wilkie, claiming that it had not been involved in any illegal or improper conduct of the brand’s casino in Melbourne. It also urged the Member of Parliament to provide local authorities with all the relevant information.
Crown Resorts Suffering Another Serious Blow
Even if the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation finds out that the accusations made by Mr. Willkie do not correspond to the truth, he could not be sued by the company for deliberately trying to damage the brand’s good reputation, as the allegations were made under parliamentary privilege. The accusations made by the independent Member of Parliament resulted in a decline in the share price of Crown Resorts with more than 8% in early trading today.
The allegations of Andrew Wilkie come as a further blow to the reputation of the largest Australian gambling operators, which currently owns 540 gaming tables and operates more than 2,600 gaming machines. A few months ago, in June, sixteen of its Australian and Chinese employees got prison sentences by a Chinese court after pleading guilty to allegations related to organising gambling tours for Chinese residents to Australia.
- Author
Olivia Cole
