{"id":20758,"date":"2021-07-28T16:48:06","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T16:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=20758"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:09:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:09:55","slug":"crown-melbourne-to-pay-au61m-in-tax-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-melbourne-to-pay-au61m-in-tax-penalties","title":{"rendered":"Crown Melbourne to pay AU$61m in tax penalties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Crown Resorts has reported that it will make a payment to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) representing an underpayment of casino tax by Crown Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Crown Resorts has reported that it has decided to pay the VCGLR AU$61m\u00a0<\/strong>due to the underpayment of casino taxes and applicable penalty interest related to Crown Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The underpayment was originally about AU$37m<\/strong>, but the figure increased due to payment delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crown Resorts<\/strong>\u00a0said it is continuing to review other aspects of casino tax payments and will update the market once the review is complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) fined\u00a0Crown Melbourne<\/a>\u00a0AU$22.5m (US$17.3m) following its inquiry into the casino operator. The company had previously been\u00a0fined AU$1m (US$777,305)<\/strong>\u00a0for not properly analysing foreign high rollers and their junket operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks ago, Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission heard that\u00a0Crown Melbourne had underpaid its casino tax\u00a0<\/strong>for seven years. Xavier Walsh<\/strong>,\u00a0Crown Melbourne\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0chief executive, admitted that he learned about the possibility in 2018 but only started investigating when Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission was announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked by former Federal Court judge\u00a0Raymond Finkelstein<\/strong> why he did nothing for almost three years, Walsh said he \u201ctook comfort\u201d from knowing\u00a0senior Crown staff were aware of the issue<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to ABC newspaper, Walsh raised the issue to former executive chairman, Helen Coonan<\/strong>, once it was announced that the Royal Commission was to examine Crown\u2019s suitability to hold a licence for its casino in Melbourne<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current CEO, Steve McCann<\/a>, also referred to the tax underpayment. He said that he wrote to the Victorian treasury conceding that Crown had made illegal deductions<\/strong> from its poker machine tax calculations since 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adrian Finanzio<\/strong>, the counsel assisting Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts<\/a>, told the inquiry that the casino operator should lose its licence<\/strong> for Crown Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finanzio argued that the evidence against Crown Melbourne during the inquiry showed \u201cserious misconduct,\u00a0illegal conduct and highly inappropriate conduct<\/strong>, which has been encouraged or facilitated by a culture which has consistently put profit before all other considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finanzio also said that Xavier Walsh<\/strong>, Crown Melbourne\u2019s chief executive, and former executive chairman, Helen Coonan<\/strong>, were not appropriate people to remain connected to the casino operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crown Melbourne to reopen after a snap closure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Crown Melbourne<\/strong> has announced that its casino, restaurants and bars will reopen after a snap closure to contain a spread of Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reopening, however, will be with\u00a0capacity restrictions of 100 patrons in each indoor space\u00a0<\/strong>while physical distancing and hygiene protocols remain in place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crown Resorts has reported that it will make a payment to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) representing an underpayment of casino tax by Crown Melbourne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Crown Resorts will pay AU$61m to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) for underpaid casino taxes and penalty interest related to Crown Melbourne. This follows a Royal Commission inquiry revealing a seven-year tax underpayment and previous fines for AML failures, with counsel recommending license revocation due to serious misconduct and a 'profit before all other considerations' culture.","focusai_entities":"Crown Resorts, Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, VCGLR, Crown Melbourne, Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, ILGA, Xavier Walsh, Helen Coonan, Raymond Finkelstein, ABC newspaper, Steve McCann, Adrian Finanzio, Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission","focusai_location":"Australia, Victoria, Melbourne","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"License Revocation Impact?","query":"Beyond the immediate financial penalties, what are the broader implications for Crown Resorts' operational footprint and market access if the Victorian Royal Commission recommends license revocation for Crown Melbourne?"},{"label":"Governance Framework Changes?","query":"What specific enhancements to corporate governance frameworks and internal control mechanisms are anticipated across the Australian iGaming and land-based casino sector in response to Crown's admitted tax underpayments and regulatory breaches?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[14657],"class_list":["post-20758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-crown-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20758","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=20758"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20806,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20758\/revisions\/20806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}