{"id":17018,"date":"2021-04-20T15:49:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T15:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=17018"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:15:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:15:35","slug":"former-wa-chief-casino-officer-faces-crown-royal-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-wa-chief-casino-officer-faces-crown-royal-commission","title":{"rendered":"Former WA chief casino officer faces Crown Royal Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Connolly has hired legal representation to face the state\u2019s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Michael Connolly<\/strong>, Western Australia\u2019s former chief casino operator, has been granted leave<\/strong> to appear before the state’s Royal Commission into its regulatory framework for casinos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connolly, now the deputy director general of the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, has hired Nicholas Malone as his lawyer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connolly stepped down as the state’s chief casino officer after revelations about his social relationship with Crown staff<\/strong> in Patricia Bergin’s report<\/a> to determine if Crown was suitable to hold its licence for its second Sydney casino<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his previous role, Connolly had responsibility for granting or refusing licences <\/strong>and approving key casino staff members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It came to light that Connolly had a friendship <\/strong>with Claude Marais<\/strong>, Crown Resorts’ general manager of legal and compliance, and Paul Hulme<\/strong>, Crown\u2019s manager of gaming and regulatory compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Royal Commission<\/strong>, which will decide if Crown Resorts is suitable to continue holding a casino gaming licence for Crown Perth, will also investigate Western Australia\u2019s regulatory framework for the gambling industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Royal Commission will deliver an internal report by June 30 and a final report by November 14<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Connolly has hired legal representation to face the state\u2019s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Michael Connolly, Western Australia's former chief casino operator, will appear before the state's Royal Commission investigating Crown Resorts and the broader regulatory framework. His appearance follows revelations of social ties with Crown staff, which emerged during a prior inquiry into Crown's Sydney licence suitability, raising concerns about regulatory independence and governance. The Commission will assess Crown Perth's licence suitability and propose reforms to Western Australia's gambling industry oversight.","focusai_entities":"Michael Connolly, Crown Resorts, Nicholas Malone, Patricia Bergin, Claude Marais, Paul Hulme, Royal Commission, Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries","focusai_location":"Australia, Western Australia, Sydney, Perth","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Framework Impact","query":"What specific reforms to Western Australia's regulatory framework for the gambling industry are likely to be recommended by the Royal Commission, and how might these influence B2B\/B2C licensing processes?"},{"label":"Crown Resorts Licence Risk","query":"Given the ongoing scrutiny and previous findings, what is the probability of Crown Resorts retaining its casino gaming licence for Crown Perth, and what are the potential financial implications for the operator?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[14657],"class_list":["post-17018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-crown-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17018"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17054,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17018\/revisions\/17054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}