{"id":20035,"date":"2021-07-08T14:14:10","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T14:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=20035"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:49:21","slug":"wa-royal-commission-into-crown-perth-opens-submissions-to-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wa-royal-commission-into-crown-perth-opens-submissions-to-the-public","title":{"rendered":"WA Royal Commission into Crown Perth opens submissions to the public"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Western Australia&#8217;s Royal Commission has called on former and current Crown Resorts employees, government employees and the public in general to provide information about improper conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Australia.-\u00a0<strong>Western Australia\u2019s Royal Commission<\/strong>\u00a0has issued a media statement requesting information from the public about possible money laundering and improper conduct at\u00a0<strong>Crown Perth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Royal Commission said <strong>it is seeking to engage with customers and their families<\/strong>, current and former Crown Perth employees and current and former government employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the release, <strong>Western Australia\u2019s regulator\u00a0<\/strong>must report and make recommendations related to Crown&#8217;s suitability to hold a casino gaming licence in Western Australia as well as on the appropriateness of the regulatory framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The topics on which the Commission wants to recollect information are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>money laundering;<\/li><li>infiltration by criminals;<\/li><li>problem gambling practices; and<\/li><li>gratuitous rewards programs.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The deadline to provide information is August 2. <strong>The second phase of the Commission\u2019s inquiry will resume on Friday, 23 July<\/strong>, with witnesses to be called from Monday, 26 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week, Former Supreme Court justices\u00a0<strong>Neville Owen<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Lindy Jenkins\u00a0<\/strong>together with former auditor-general Colin Murphysent an\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-resorts-wa-royal-commission-to-release-interim-report\">interim report<\/a> to the governor of Western Australia, Kim Beazley AC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In May,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wa-aml-unit-should-never-have-been-disbanded-inquiry-hears\">David Halge<\/a>, former chief casino officer told the Royal Commission that an\u00a0<strong>anti-money laundering<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>(AML)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>police unit\u00a0<\/strong>dismantled in 1999 could have helped\u00a0<strong>Western Australia\u2019s Gaming and Wagering Commission (GWC)\u00a0<\/strong>to investigate potential criminal activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>David Halge said<strong>&nbsp;the AML unit comprised a single person<\/strong>&nbsp;whose work solely entailed investigating junket operators. Halge said explained<strong>&nbsp;that person analysed junket operators<\/strong>&nbsp;and reported any criminal activity to the GWC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said: \u201cOnce the police unit was disbanded,&nbsp;<strong>I didn\u2019t need to take any report up to the commission that was brought to me<\/strong>&nbsp;by the inspectors concerning criminal activities or money laundering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Halge suggested that Gaming and Wagering Commission member&nbsp;<strong>Barry Sargeant should be asked&nbsp;<\/strong>why the AML police unit was dismantled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Crown Melbourne may have underpaid casino tax for seven years, inquiry hears<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-resorts-underpaid-taxes-for-seven-years-inquiry-hears\">Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission<\/a>\u00a0heard that\u00a0<strong>Crown Melbourne may have underpaid its casino tax\u00a0<\/strong>for seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Xavier Walsh<\/strong>, Crown Melbourne\u2019s chief executive, admitted that he learned about the possibility in 2018 but only started investigating when Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission into the casino operator was announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked by former Federal Court judge<strong>&nbsp;Raymond Finkelstein<\/strong>, who\u2019s leading the inquiry, on why he did nothing for almost three years, Walsh said he \u201ctook comfort\u201d from knowing<strong>&nbsp;senior Crown staff were aware of the issue<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to ABC newspaper, Walsh raised the issue to former executive chairman,&nbsp;<strong>Helen Coonan<\/strong>, once it was announced that the Royal Commission was to examine Crown\u2019s suitability to hold a licence for its&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ilga-orders-crown-melbourne-to-pay-au22-5m\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">casino in Melbourne<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Western Australia&#8217;s Royal Commission has called on former and current Crown Resorts employees, government employees and the public in general to provide information about improper conduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":20056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Royal Commissions in Western Australia and Victoria are investigating Crown Resorts for extensive improper conduct, including money laundering, criminal infiltration, problem gambling practices, and potential casino tax underpayment. Both inquiries are assessing Crown's suitability to hold casino licenses and scrutinizing the adequacy of existing regulatory frameworks and corporate governance, with calls for public and employee information.","focusai_entities":"Crown Resorts, Crown Perth, Crown Melbourne, Western Australia\u2019s Royal Commission, Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission, Western Australia\u2019s Gaming and Wagering Commission (GWC), Neville Owen, Lindy Jenkins, Colin Murphy, Kim Beazley AC, David Halge, Barry Sargeant, Xavier Walsh, Helen Coonan, Raymond Finkelstein, ABC newspaper","focusai_location":"Western Australia, Perth, Victoria, Melbourne, Australia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.98), operator_casino (0.97), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.98), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.99)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Crown's License Viability?","query":"Given the findings of both Royal Commissions, what is the probability of Crown Resorts retaining its casino licenses in Western Australia and Victoria, and what specific remediation actions would be required?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Impact?","query":"How might the recommendations from the Western Australia and Victoria Royal Commissions lead to a re-evaluation and strengthening of national iGaming and casino regulatory frameworks, particularly concerning AML and corporate governance oversight?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[20215],"class_list":["post-20035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-crown-perth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20035","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=20035"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20058,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20035\/revisions\/20058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}