Australian gambling operator Crown Resorts has faced calls to make sure it provides better help for gambling addicts who speak languages other than English. This happened after some migrants have recently revealed that visits to Crown Resorts’ casino in Melbourne affected their finances and relationships.
According to submissions to the Royal Commission into the casino company in Victoria, language barriers make it hard for gambling venues’ patrons to access support to control their gambling behaviour, including the self-exclusion option that allows customers to suspend themselves from using the casino services.
Reportedly, Victorian Arabic Social Services, a local community services group that is aimed at helping the Arabic-speaking community, has explained that the patrons who wanted to ban themselves from Crown Melbourne found it very hard to do so exactly because of the existing language barriers. Furthermore, even when such players had filed an application for self-exclusion, many of them found they still could access the gambling venue freely, without being prevented to do so or asked to leave the gambling property by any of the staff or security members.
Other casino visitors who did not speak English fluently or who had recently arrived in the country revealed that, at first, they attended the Melbourne-based casino of Crown Resorts for entertainment but then fell into significant debts because of frequent gambling.
Many Foreign Visitors of Crown Melbourne Started Gambling for Fun but Became Problem Gamblers
The hearings of the Royal Commission into Crown Resorts and its Melbourne casino are set to begin on May 17th. The review is aimed at finding out whether Crown Melbourne is fit to keep its casino operating licence and whether keeping its casino in Victoria operational is in the public interest.
During the first week of the hearings, only one member of Crown Resorts’ staff is expected to appear. Nick Stokes, the group general manager of anti-money laundering, is set to be present as a witness. Reportedly, the Royal Commission is set to review various topics, including the oversight carried out by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) and the partnerships with junket operators.
Some campaigners, such as gambling support experts and workers have argued that the casino giant needs to improve its problem gambling support for vulnerable customers and gambling addiction prevention. According to them, casino patrons from culturally and linguistically different backgrounds should be protected in a way that would make sure they would not fall victims to dangerous gambling behaviour.
As claimed by counsellors and some campaigners, the casino has become an attractive gambling venue for culturally diverse groups of people, some of whom stay there for a long time. As mentioned above, some of the organisations helping such consumers have claimed that such problem gambler customers started gambling simply for entertainment purposes but quickly developed gambling addiction after visits to Crown Melbourne.
According to Turning Point, an addiction research group, gambling operators and Crown Resorts, in particular, must make larger investments in programs that are aimed at dealing with gambling-related harm and its effects on vulnerable groups of customers.
- Author
Olivia Cole
