{"id":30286,"date":"2022-05-31T01:56:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T04:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30286"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:17:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:17:00","slug":"crown-melbourne-fined-au80m-in-vgccc-disciplinary-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-melbourne-fined-au80m-in-vgccc-disciplinary-action","title":{"rendered":"Crown Melbourne fined AU$80m in VGCCC disciplinary action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s the first time the VGCCC has used its toughened enforcement powers under legislative amendments to the Casino Control Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.-\u00a0The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission<\/strong>\u00a0(VGCCC) has announced disciplinary action against Crown Melbourne for its China Union Pay process to avoid Chinese currency restrictions. It’s imposed a fine of AU$80m (US$57.4m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2012 and 2016, Crown Melbourne allowed its customers to use a credit or debit card to access funds to play games at Melbourne casinos. It earned an estimated AU$32m in revenue from AU$164m in transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crown Melbourne has conceded that\u00a0<\/strong>the CUP process was unlawful and “totally unacceptable”<\/strong> and acknowledged that the VGCCC was justified in imposing a fine. In taking disciplinary action, the VGCCC considered Crown’s cooperation and remorse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s the first time\u00a0the VGCCC has used its stronger enforcement powers\u00a0<\/strong>under the Casino Control Act Amendment, which now allows it to impose fines up to a maximum of AU$100m<\/strong>. The VGCCC is considering further disciplinary proceedings against Crown over other inquiry findings, with penalties of up to AU$100m for each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fran Thorn<\/a>, VGCCC chair, said: \u201cCrown\u2019s CUP process was a clandestine, deliberate process, which not only breached the Casino Control Act but was also devised to assist patrons to breach China\u2019s foreign currency exchange restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCrown was aware of the risk that the CUP process could be illegal but decided to run that risk. In doing so, it showed no regard for upholding its regulatory obligations. Indeed, it went to some lengths to hide what it was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCrown benefited handsomely from its illegal conduct. The fine will ensure that Crown is stripped of the revenue it derived from the CUP process and will send a clear message that it must comply with its regulatory obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Raymond Finkelstein<\/strong>, who led the state of Victoria\u2019s inquiry declared Crown Resorts unsuitable to hold a licence<\/a> for its Crown Melbourne casino. <\/strong>However, the operator was allowed to keep its licence under stricter conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VGCCC announces new rules for EGMs at Crown Melbourne<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As previously reported by Focus Gaming News, the VGCCC has announced changes to the rules for electronic gaming machines (EGMs) at Crown Melbourne.\u00a0EGM players at the casino<\/strong>\u00a0will no longer be able to play more than one machine at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EGM players will also no longer be allowed to use any item to hold down the buttons on unrestricted machines to facilitate continuous play. Continuous play on restricted machines is already prohibited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the regulator, the rules for EGMs at the casino will better align with the responsible gambling objectives in the Gambling Regulation Act 2003 (GR Act) and the Casino Control Act 1991 (CC Act).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s the first time the VGCCC has used its toughened enforcement powers under legislative amendments to the Casino Control Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) has levied an AU$80m fine against Crown Melbourne for its unlawful China Union Pay process, which facilitated the circumvention of Chinese currency restrictions between 2012 and 2016. This marks the first application of the VGCCC's enhanced enforcement powers under recent legislative amendments, with further disciplinary proceedings against Crown anticipated. Concurrently, the VGCCC has introduced new responsible gambling rules for EGMs at Crown Melbourne, aligning with broader regulatory objectives.","focusai_entities":"Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission, Crown Melbourne, Crown Resorts, Fran Thorn, Judge Raymond Finkelstein","focusai_location":"Australia, Victoria, Melbourne, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), product_ux (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Future Crown Penalties?","query":"What is the estimated aggregate financial exposure for Crown Melbourne from the VGCCC's ongoing disciplinary proceedings related to other inquiry findings?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Impact?","query":"How will the VGCCC's demonstrated use of enhanced enforcement powers under the Casino Control Act Amendment influence the broader regulatory compliance strategies of other licensed operators in Australia?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[14657],"class_list":["post-30286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-crown-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30286","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=30286"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30326,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30286\/revisions\/30326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}