The Royal Commission into the Southbank operations of Crown Resorts has heard that the gambling operator’s system is set in a way to allow casino patrons to play for hours undisturbed by staff members.
Evidence presented at the Royal Commission hearings shows that gamblers at Crown Resorts’ gaming floors were able to play for at least 12 hours before members of the casino staff go and check on them.
The inquiry into Crown Resort’s Southbank operations and their suitability to hold a casino operating licence has heard that one Crown Melbourne casino patron was even left to play more than 34 hours straight before staff members forced them to take a break. This was confirmed by Adrian Finanzio, SC, the counsel who assists the inquiry.
Mr Finanzio said that a high-roller was left to play for over 34 consecutive hours undisturbed in 2019 at Crown Melbourne before they were asked to take a break. Furthermore, he noted that the system made it possible for people to gamble for hours and hours before they were addressed by any staff.
Sonja Bauer, the head of the responsible gaming team at the casino, explained there was an alert system thanks to which staff members would encourage the players who can be tracked electronically (or, in other words, the ones using cards) to take a break from gambling every 12, 15 and 17 hours. Still, Ms Bauer admitted that Crown Resorts’ staff members would not make an automatic check-ups on the rest of the players, who cannot be tracked, and mostly relied on general observations to do so.
Casino Staff Would Hardly Intervene in Long Gambling Sessions at Crown Melbourne
Ms Bauer agreed to the claims of Mr Finanzio, SC, saying such a thing was possible considering the size of the casino venue, its alert system and the number of staff available.
There are 12 staff members, who are specially employed to monitor the compliance with responsible gambling rules at Crown Melbourne. These people also provide a brief training on the issue to other staff of the casino.
Ray Finkelstein, the commissioner, explained that one of the responsible gambling advisors of the casino giant’s operations in Melbourne previously gave evidence that so-called “carded players” would be rarely stopped from gambling after 12 consecutive hours of play. Mr Finkelstein further noted that staff members would address the gambler if they were clearly showing signs of irresponsible gambling.
The commissioner also asked Ms Bauer how the general staff of the casino, including those serving drinks and food, could be expected to guess whether a patron had been playing for 12 hours in case they only worked 8-hour shifts. To this question, the head of responsible gambling responded that staff members were obliged to pass on any important observations to the staff members from the next shift. However, such obligations were not included in the written Crown Resorts policy, so the casino did not check whether it was actually applied.
- Author
Olivia Cole
