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Crown Melbourne’s privileged position as the exclusive casino operator in Victoria brings with it an obligation to be a leader in providing a safe gambling experience free from criminal influence.
We expect Crown to actively prevent gambling harm, deter criminal activity and deliver on its social and legal obligations to the community. The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission will watch and act to ensure this occurs.
Our regulatory approach to Crown has been significantly strengthened following the 2021 Royal Commission, and even further in the light of the 2024 Suitability Decision - our powers have been increased, resourcing expanded and the VGCCC has a dedicated focus, and division, to regulate the Casino’s operations. This means you can be confident that we will ensure Crown never again places the pursuit of profit over the wellbeing of people.
We will insist that the ongoing transformation of Crown’s culture continues, as outlined in its ongoing transformation plan, to ensure Crown operates safely, fairly, and free from criminal activity.
Meanwhile, here are some of the ways we are ensuring Crown meets the expectations of the Victorian public:
We use and analyse intelligence, data monitoring and other information to spot and target high-risk areas for criminality and gambling harm at the casino. We look out for emerging issues and trends so that we are ready to act on anything that could cause gambling harm or enable illegal activity.
We have strengthened our collaboration and information sharing with key partner agencies so that we have access to the most up-to-date intelligence. These agencies include:
Detailed data analysis can alert us to irregularities that might indicate criminal activity, such as potential money laundering and drive further regulatory activity including investigations. The data we examine includes:
We also monitor activities across the casino and have access to various casino databases and records, including access to all CCTV cameras recording Crown’s operations.
We have much stronger enforcement powers following the Royal Commission. Our powers have been expanded to issue mandatory directions (including requiring independent third-party reviews), require enforceable undertakings and issue penalty infringement notices.
We also now have the power to impose fines of up to $100 million per breach (up from $1 million). We have already used these powers to take disciplinary action against Crown Melbourne five times, resulting in $250 million in fines.
The breaches related to:
Details of penalties and disciplinary fines (including the reasons for our decisions) are published on our website.
We have issued directions and rules to Crown aimed at reducing harm by, for example, ensuring Crown cannot reintroduce programs like their Red Carpet and Bingo programs, which targeted those in the community who may be at higher risk of gambling harm, like the elderly.
We also issued directions to improve practices regarding bank and blank cheques, identity and probity checks for premium players and introduce mandatory carded play for poker machines.
In July 2022 we established a dedicated Casino Division. This new division is solely focused on the regulatory oversight of Crown Melbourne. It ensures that the casino complies with all its regulatory obligations and operates safely, fairly, and free from criminal influence.
The Casino Division helps ensure the Melbourne casino operator upholds the spirit and not just the letter of the law, and is honest, trustworthy and transparent in all its dealings.
The Casino Division is led by the Executive Director, Casino Division and is made up of 4 teams:
Includes 20 inspectors located on-site at the casino. They monitor the gaming floor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and have access to all CCTV cameras.
Responsible for assessing and licensing casino staff who must receive regulatory approval, as well as considering and approving a vast array of equipment, games, rules and processes critical to casino operations.
Investigate suspected breaches and enable enforcement action when the casino fails to meet its obligations.
Ensure that Crown Melbourne complies with its Melbourne Transformation Plan and the associated Commission directions and expectations arising from the March 2024 Crown Melbourne Suitability Decision.
The Casino Division is also supported by other technical specialists across the VGCCC, such as data analysts, intelligence officers and legal staff.
We are taking steps to reduce the potential for harm to people who gamble at Crown Melbourne. We are also ensuring Crown acts proactively to prevent harm.
These steps include:
Crown has been required to prevent the harmful impacts of gambling by acting decisively and promptly whenever its personnel sees or suspects harm is occurring.
The VGCCC has integrated a focus on gambling harm prevention into all elements of regulating Crown, including utilising technology to capture ‘red flags’ for risks of gambling harm. We have expanded our monitoring and surveillance capabilities, with access to the extensive network of CCTV cameras to monitor gaming activity and detect signs of patrons experiencing gambling harm.
Our Position Statement on Harm Minimisation makes it clear to Crown and other gambling operators that they have a duty to act wherever harm is identified or suspected.
Crown Melbourne must keep the casino free from criminal influence or exploitation. This includes acting on any sign of money laundering and financial crime, and implementing technology and processes to mitigate the risks.
Since the Royal Commission we’ve enhanced our approach to ensure Crown operates free from criminal influence or exploitation. These actions include:
‘Junket’ programs for high rollers have been banned and we are restricting and tightly monitoring any programs for ‘premium players’ - people who gamble large sums of money - demanding a transparent and robust assessment of players.
We undertake our own intelligence, open-source and international checks to assess a premium players general reputation in terms of character, honesty, and integrity along with validating Crowns enhanced customer due diligence assessment, including financial capacity and residential status.
Crown Melbourne has developed a Transformation Plan to map how it will continue to reform to ensure it operates safely, fairly, and free from criminal activity. Progress on this plan will be at the heart of our oversight of Crown.
The plan specifies the Crown Melbourne Board’s transformation objectives, priorities and outcomes, milestones, and timelines for the next three years.
The Commission will issue a formal direction to Crown Melbourne requiring it to:
Crown’s progress on its Transformation Plan is critical to its ongoing reform and will be central to our review of Crown Melbourne’s suitability in the next Casino Review which will be completed by 2027.
We expect a full transformation to a world standard example of excellent practice in the delivery of casino services. To this end, the Commission is providing Crown with a clear statement of its expectations, which states that Crown must operate in ways that go beyond strict legal obligations and:
