{"id":32719,"date":"2022-08-17T05:12:19","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T08:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=32719"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:48:17","slug":"health-advocates-call-for-smoking-ban-in-crown-melbourne-high-roller-rooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/health-advocates-call-for-smoking-ban-in-crown-melbourne-high-roller-rooms","title":{"rendered":"Health advocates call for smoking ban in Crown Melbourne high-roller rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Casinos in Victoria are exempt from smoking regulations, but health campaigners have urged politicians to remove the exemption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- A group of health advocates are pushing for authorities in Victoria to ban smoking in high-roller rooms at Crown Resorts’ casino in the state. Victoria’s Royal Commission<\/a>, led by\u00a0Judge Raymond Finkelstein,<\/strong>\u00a0recommended a ban, but Crown Melbourne’s high-roller rooms currently remain exempt from the state’s indoor smoking ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd Harper<\/strong>, the chief executive of Cancer Council Victoria, told The Guardian: “Employees in Victoria\u2019s bars and clubs have been able to work in a safe, smoke-free environments\u2026 so it is disappointing that Crown employees have had to wait so long for similar protections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI ask all members of parliament to support the protection of Crown employees from the harms of secondhand tobacco smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When smoking was prohibited in other indoor areas of the casino, gambling expenditure fell by about 15 per cent, according to associate professor\u00a0Charles Livingstone<\/strong>, head of the gambling and social determinants unit at Monash University’s school of public health and preventive medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victoria’s Royal Commission made 33 recommendations<\/strong>, some of which have already been implemented. As a result of new legislation<\/a>, every Australian resident who uses the pokies must set a maximum loss limit before playing. Crown has until the end of 2023 to implement the mandatory pre-commitments, with full implementation needed no later than 2025. Customers will be able to see any loss limit they choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other new measures include\u00a0limiting cash transactions to $1,000 per 24 hours\u00a0<\/strong>in a bid to crack down on money laundering. Meanwhile, Crown will be made to pay for the cost of regulating the casino. The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission will have to approve any ownership of more than 5 per cent of the casino operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crown Sydney opens casino for VIP gaming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, Crown Resorts finally began gaming at its Crown Sydney venue with the opening of the VIP Crystal Room on its main floor. Other parts of the venue have been open since late 2020<\/a>, but the opening of the casino had been delayed due to the New South Wales inquiry into Crown\u2019s suitability to hold a licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crown Sydney chief executive Simon McGrath <\/strong>has previously said there would be 160 gaming tables and 66 electronic gaming tables available at the Crystal Room. The Mahogany floor to follow in October. There are no slot machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, Black and Platinum Crown Rewards members and their guests will be able to access the Crystal Room, followed by Gold Crown Rewards members later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Macquarie Group Limited, Crown\u2019s casino venue will control 35 per cent of Sydney\u2019s tables-based gambling market by 2025, worth AU$923m. Macquarie also forecasted a VIP turnover of AU$10bn by 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casinos in Victoria are exempt from smoking regulations, but health campaigners have urged politicians to remove the exemption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Health advocates are pressing for the removal of smoking exemptions in Crown Melbourne's high-roller rooms, citing employee safety and potential revenue impacts. Concurrently, Crown Melbourne is implementing significant regulatory reforms, including mandatory pre-commitments for pokies, cash transaction limits, and bearing regulatory costs, following Victoria's Royal Commission recommendations. Meanwhile, Crown Sydney has commenced VIP gaming operations, targeting a substantial share of the tables-based gambling market.","focusai_entities":"Crown Resorts, Cancer Council Victoria, Victoria's Royal Commission, Judge Raymond Finkelstein, Todd Harper, Charles Livingstone, Monash University, Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission, Crown Melbourne, Crown Sydney, Simon McGrath, Macquarie Group Limited","focusai_location":"Victoria, Australia, Sydney, New South Wales","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Crown's GGR?","query":"What is the projected impact on Crown Melbourne's Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) from the mandatory pre-commitment scheme and the potential removal of smoking exemptions in high-roller rooms?"},{"label":"Regulatory Compliance Timeline?","query":"What are the specific milestones and deadlines for Crown Resorts to achieve full regulatory compliance with all 33 recommendations from Victoria's Royal Commission, particularly regarding pre-commitments and ownership structures?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[14657],"class_list":["post-32719","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\/32719","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=32719"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32728,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32719\/revisions\/32728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}