{"id":20986,"date":"2021-08-03T11:21:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T14:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=20986"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:59:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:59:31","slug":"crown-melbournes-chief-executive-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-melbournes-chief-executive-resigns","title":{"rendered":"Crown Melbourne\u2019s chief executive resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After heavy criticism during Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts, Xavier Walsh has stepped down as CEO of Crown Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Crown Resorts has announced\u00a0that Xavier Walsh will step down as chief executive officer<\/strong> of Crown Melbourne<\/strong> on August 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news comes after Adrian Finanzio,<\/strong>\u00a0counsel assisting Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts, said Walsh was not appropriate to remain connected to the\u00a0Crown Resorts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said Walsh will remain available to assist the company\u00a0<\/strong>until his employment at Crown ends on December 9. Crown Resorts said it will announce a replacement following consultation with the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July, Walsh admitted\u00a0Crown Melbourne<\/a>\u00a0had\u00a0underpaid its casino tax\u00a0<\/strong>for seven years. He said he had 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

Asked by former Federal Court judge\u00a0Raymond Finkelstein<\/strong>, who\u2019s leading the inquiry, 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

Finanzio said: \u201cWalsh partially disclosed the existence of the issues to other directors<\/strong>, downplayed the significance of the issue to Crown\u2019s lawyers, and never followed up the matter in any meaningful way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He 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

He said the casino operator should lose its licence<\/strong>\u00a0for Crown Melbourne. Crown Resorts is working to make\u00a0further changes to its board<\/a>\u00a0and management in an attempt to satisfy Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After heavy criticism during Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts, Xavier Walsh has stepped down as CEO of Crown Melbourne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Xavier Walsh has resigned as CEO of Crown Melbourne following severe criticism during Victoria's Royal Commission into Crown Resorts, which uncovered underpaid casino taxes and a culture prioritizing profit over compliance. The inquiry's counsel suggested Crown Melbourne should lose its license, prompting Crown Resorts to implement further board and management changes to satisfy regulatory demands.","focusai_entities":"Xavier Walsh, Crown Resorts, Crown Melbourne, Adrian Finanzio, Raymond Finkelstein, Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation","focusai_location":"Australia, Victoria","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.97), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.96), journalist_researcher (0.98)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Crown Melbourne License","query":"What specific remediation actions and enhanced governance frameworks will Crown Resorts implement to mitigate the risk of license revocation for Crown Melbourne, and what is the projected timeline for these changes?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent Impact","query":"How might the findings and potential sanctions from Victoria's Royal Commission against Crown Resorts influence regulatory compliance expectations and enforcement actions across other iGaming jurisdictions globally?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[14657],"class_list":["post-20986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-crown-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20986","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=20986"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21018,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20986\/revisions\/21018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}