The Perth Casino Royal Commission, which got established in 2021, has delivered its final report about a year later. No matter what recommendations are made by the Commission, the Government of Western Australia has yet to decide when it will make the findings of the report public.
The report of the Perth Royal Commission comes 4 months later than its original deadline in November 2021, which was extended after the three commissioners – Leville Owen, Colin Murphy and Lindy Jenkins – requested for such an extension, citing the pressure of their tight schedule as one of the main reasons for the delay.
The investigation in Crown Perth is the latest one in a series of heavyweight probes into alleged links to criminal organisations, money laundering and problem gambling at the casinos of the Australian gambling giant in recent years.
Only a week ago, the country’s financial crimes regulatory body, AUSTRAC, issued an 863-page statement of claim after its own investigation into the operations of Crown Perth and Crown Melbourne. It reported almost 550 alleged violations of the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws of the country. As Casino Guardian reported at the time, the document alleged that the private jet of the gambling company was often used for transportation of foreign casino patrons and their money, with the AUSTRAC noting that neither the gamblers nor their money had been appropriately monitored.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre noted that for years there were no red flags raised about the source of funding of some casino patrons, who were not considered as high-risk customers by Crown Perth. However, in some cases, the financial watchdog alleged that Crown Perth did not adequately examine whether a customer’s source of wealth was legitimate.
Planned Takeover by Blackstone Could Be Affected by Some Report Findings
At the time, the AUSTRAC revealed that the penalty for each of Crown Perth’s breaches is between AU$18 million and AU$22.2 million.
If the case filed by the Australian financial watchdog in the Federal Court is successful, the overall fine to be faced by the casino operator could endanger the announced takeover of Crown Resorts by the US private equity firm Blackstone Inc. Under the proposed terms of the acquisition agreement, fines worth over AU$750 million could allow Blackstone to withdraw its interest in Crown Resorts.
On the other hand, the planned takeover deal also needs to get the approval of state gambling regulatory bodies, including the Gaming and Wagering Commission (GWC) of Western Australia. A spokesperson of the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries confirmed that the US private equity giant filed an application for consideration for probity approval in December 2021, and the probe was still being carried out. As part of the process, the aforementioned regulator is set to investigate whether Blackstone and its associates are fit to run a casino, considering their financial status and reputation.
Any drastic recommendations included in the report of the Perth Royal Commission that the WA Government agrees to implement will be another factor that could affect the planned Blackstone acquisition deal.
As mentioned above, the Perth Royal Commission has handed copies of its report to Premier Mark McGowan and the state Governor Kim Beazley, but the Government of Western Australia has not yet announced the official release rate of the report findings. As explained by Tony Buti, the Racing and Gaming Minister, has shared that the Government would take into consideration the report and then would table it in the WA Parliament. The next meeting of the Parliament is scheduled for March 15th.
- Author
Olivia Cole
