ILGA fines pub for offering customers inducements to gamble

Liquor and Gaming New South Wales has fined the Rose and Crown Hotel in Parramatta AU$107,358 (US$77,360).

Australia.- The New South Wales Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) has reported that it has fined The Rose and Crown Hotel in Parramatta for offering incentives to its customers. According to the regulator, the pub’s staff borrowed money from safes and offered free drinks and cigarettes for people to keep them playing pokie machines.

Staff also allowed credit and debit card withdrawals of at least $145,000 from electronic money transfer machines in the pub in 2017 and 2018.

Venue executive Samantha Glynn had reported the venue to Liquor & Gaming NSW after being suspended for manipulating the poker machine payment system by altering the value of remaining credit tickets and creating fake tickets, allegedly stealing up to $400,000. Subsequent investigations uncovered several irregularities and referred the matter to the ILGA.

The Rose and Crown was also found to have breached its licence by installing ATMs in gaming rooms. It failed to provide contact cards to players, displayed gambling-related signage and slot machines outside the hotel, and served alcohol and operated slot machines outside of stipulated trading hours on Good Friday.

The regulator fined the venue’s licensee RC One Pty AU$107,358 (US$77,360). Manager Paul Camkin was fined AU$10,000 and suspended for 12 months from being a licensee or being the approved manager of a hotel. Glynn had been sentenced to an 18-month intensive corrections order.

ILGA’s authority chair Phil Crawford said: “The hotel was essentially facilitating cash advances for gambling via a system of fake transactions, and this is an obvious risk for problem gambling.”