Executives of the Crown Perth casino are trying to distance themselves from their parent company in an effort to keep the casino operating licence.
At the time when Joshua Preston, the former chief legal officer of the company appeared before the Western Australia Royal Commission into the gambling operator on August 2nd, he shared that the board of Crown Perth was pretty much independent from the James Packer-associated giant. Still, Mr Preston admitted that the two casinos were involved in money laundering crimes, only a week after the assisting counsels of the Royal Commission in Victoria recommended that the gambling operator’s Melbourne casino licence should be partly suspended because of the illegal practices related to money laundering.
The above-mentioned recommendation has come after, earlier this year, the inquiry into Crown Resorts in New South Wales (NSW) found the company unfit to keep its operating licence in Sydney due to findings of misconduct and numerous legislation breaches at the company’s Victorian facility.
As Casino Guardian has already reported, the Royal Commission in Western Australia is also currently considering whether to strip Crown Resorts of its Perth casino’s operating licence or not.
Crown Perth Is Also Facing a Royal Commission Investigation over Alleged Gambling Violations
As explained by Mr Preston, the Perth casino was pretty distanced from the culture and practices of the broader Crown group, as it has been relatively independent of the board of Burswood Limited – the intermediary company of Crown Resorts that was entitled to run the management and operation of the Australian gambling giant’s Perth casino under the Western Australian laws. The former chief legal officer said that Crown Perth had always been different because it had not had the same relationship with the group thanks to the fact that its board’s independent directors were not Crown Resorts’ directors as well.
Burswood Limited is overseen by a 5-person board but, as heard last week by the Royal Commission, it did not have a meeting for almost half a year in 2021. In comparison, Crown Resorts has had 18 meetings in that time. Reportedly, some of the board’s meetings lasted for less than half an hour.
Still, Mr Preston agreed there were some issues associated with the duration of the Burswood Limited’s board meetings but shared he considered that a certain level of independence from the broader group. According to him, the main difference between Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth was the composition of the entities’ board, regardless of the fact that the actual nature of the discussions was not too different, such as the CEO’s report, the structure and agenda items, as well as financing.
Apart from that, the two Crown casinos now kept the same register as part of the gambling operator’s obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act. This cannot be avoided regardless of the relative independence of Crown Perth due to the fact that the operations of each location were sufficiently similar for the programs to be considered the same.
- Author
Olivia Cole
