John Alexander, former Crown Resorts chief executive, said the casino operator used private jets and luxury yachts to attract high rollers. However, the approach resulted in big losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Australia.- Western Australia\u2019s Royal Commission has heard\u00a0<\/strong>that\u00a0Crown Perth’s\u00a0<\/strong>special treatment for high rollers cost\u00a0it millions. <\/strong>According to\u00a0John Alexander<\/strong>, former Crown Resorts chief executive, Crown Perth tried to\u00a0attract VIP clients by offering luxury yachts<\/strong>, private jets and even subsidising multi-million dollar weddings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the approach brought huge losses for the casino operator. During the inquiry,\u00a0Patricia Cahill<\/strong>, counsel assisting the Royal Commission, cited the example of a wedding that was held for a friend of an intermediary at a cost of more than AU$2.75m.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Cahill,\u00a0Crown Perth funded approximately AU$950,000 in wedding expenses<\/strong>.\u00a0However, Alexander admitted that sometimes\u00a0high rollers chose not to gamble, which resulted in big debts\u00a0<\/strong>for the casino operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cahill said the wedding party resulted in a loss of AU$3.1m\u00a0<\/strong>for Crown Perth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The inquiry also heard that a gambler has an AU$29m debt since February 2014.<\/strong> Another gambler had debts of AU$10m, which have been outstanding since October 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cahill said: “Media reports indicate that he may be convicted of various crimes in China.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alexander argued\u00a0that Crown Perth\u2019s ability to enforce debt repayment was \u201cvery limited\u201d because the gamblers live in another country<\/strong>. He said individual high rollers were harder to recover debts from, compared to junket operators, who guaranteed the debts of participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crown Perth<\/a>\u00a0approved credit for Australian and international gamblers<\/strong>\u00a0although it is not allowed under WA laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to ABC, Crown Perth also planned to roll out a China UnionPay (CUP) system<\/strong> to let Chinese gamblers transfer money to the casino with the approval of the gambling watchdog. However, Crown Perth halted the pan when 19 Crown employees were arrested in China<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Royal Commission was also told <\/strong>that Joshua Preston<\/strong>, former Crown legal boss, had written to WA\u2019s chief casino officer Michael Connolly about amending the Crown Perth casino manual to allow CUP transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lonnie Bossi is also being investigated as he was a signatory on the Riverbank bank account<\/strong> that, according to the Bergin inquiry<\/a>, was linked to money laundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCrown Perth provided credit for Australian and international gamblers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n