{"id":20437,"date":"2021-07-19T16:30:16","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T16:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=20437"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:28:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:28:03","slug":"crown-melbourne-unprepared-to-prevent-gambling-harms-inquiry-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-melbourne-unprepared-to-prevent-gambling-harms-inquiry-hears","title":{"rendered":"Crown Melbourne unprepared to prevent gambling harms, inquiry hears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crown Melbourne employees didn&#8217;t encourage high-gamblers to take time out, Victoria&#8217;s Royal Commission has heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia.- Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission has heard that&nbsp;<strong>Crown Melbourne employees&nbsp;<\/strong>were not prepared to discourage people from gambling after spending hours inside the venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An employee told the inquiry that <strong>he warned gamblers they could lose their VIP status\u00a0<\/strong>if they chose to self-exclude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A poker dealer at<strong>\u00a0Crown Melbourne also said he wasn&#8217;t sure what \u201cresponsible service of gaming\u201d meant<\/strong>. He said he had never advised a customer to go to a responsible gaming centre and had never had contact with the venue&#8217;s responsible gambling advisors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another dealer admitted he didn&#8217;t know the names of Crown Melbourne\u2019s responsible gambling advisors and had never heard of Crown&#8217;s play periods policy to reduce the time customers gamble without taking a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In June,\u00a0<strong>Adrian Finanzio<\/strong>, counsel assisting the inquiry, said Crown had not correctly implemented its\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-resorts-to-review-responsible-gambling-programme\">responsible gambling programme<\/a>. Finanzio said\u00a0<strong>Crown Resorts had the resources to limit the harm caused by gambling addiction<\/strong>\u00a0but that its programme had been inefficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sonja Bauer<\/strong>, Crown\u2019s general manager of responsible gaming,&nbsp;<strong>admitted failures&nbsp;<\/strong>and sent a letter stating the casino operator had resolved to implement a series of changes to the programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Finanzio said the\u00a0<strong>proposed changes should have been implemented a long time ago<\/strong>, arguing: \u201cThe letter promises to stop things which, on one view, should never have been happening in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/victorias-royal-commission-extends-inquiry-into-crown-resorts\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission<\/a>&nbsp;into&nbsp;<strong>Crown Resorts will continue up to October 15<\/strong>&nbsp;after the government approved judge Raymond Finkelstein\u2019s request for an extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finkelstein also asked for\u00a0<strong>an increase in the commission\u2019s funding from AU$10m to AU$19.75m<\/strong>\u00a0to continue investigating Crown Resorts suitability to maintain its licence for its\u00a0<strong>Melbourne casino<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to local media,&nbsp;<strong>Melissa Horne<\/strong>, minister for consumer affairs, gaming and liquor regulation, said: \u201cThe evidence we have seen&nbsp;<strong>coming out of the Royal Commission&nbsp;<\/strong>to date is significant.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ll provide the Commissioner with the<strong>&nbsp;resources and time required to complete this important work<\/strong>&nbsp;as requested.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crown Melbourne employees didn&#8217;t encourage high-gamblers to take time out, Victoria&#8217;s Royal Commission has heard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Victoria's Royal Commission has uncovered significant systemic failures in Crown Melbourne's responsible gambling program, with employees reportedly discouraging self-exclusion and lacking basic knowledge of responsible gaming protocols. This inquiry, now extended and with increased funding, is critically assessing Crown Resorts' suitability to retain its Melbourne casino license, highlighting severe corporate governance and regulatory compliance deficiencies.","focusai_entities":"Crown Melbourne, Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission, Crown Resorts, Adrian Finanzio, Sonja Bauer, Raymond Finkelstein, Melissa Horne","focusai_location":"Australia, Victoria, Melbourne","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"License Suitability Impact","query":"What specific criteria will Judge Finkelstein's final report use to determine Crown Resorts' suitability to retain its Melbourne casino license, and what are the potential financial and operational ramifications of a negative finding?"},{"label":"Governance Framework Review","query":"How will the identified failures in Crown Melbourne's responsible gambling program necessitate a re-evaluation of corporate governance frameworks and internal control mechanisms across the broader Crown Resorts entity?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[23825,23907],"class_list":["post-20437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-crown-melbourne","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20437","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=20437"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20462,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20437\/revisions\/20462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}