{"id":33184,"date":"2022-09-02T03:55:40","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T06:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=33184"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:16:08","slug":"vgcc-starts-third-disciplinary-process-against-crown-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/vgcc-starts-third-disciplinary-process-against-crown-melbourne","title":{"rendered":"VGCC starts third disciplinary process against Crown Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Crown Melbourne has been sanctioned by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) for its bank and blank cheques practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Australia.- Victoria&#8217;s casino regulator has taken action against Crown Resorts for the third time this year. It&#8217;s launched an investigation into the use of bank and blank cheques by gamblers. The probe could result in a fine of up to AU$100m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the 2021 Royal Commission in Crown, the practices under investigation violated section 68 of the Casino Control Act, which prohibits extending credit to patrons engaged in gaming or betting. These practices included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>exchanging a bank cheque (to which the patron was the payee) for gambling chips valued at the face value of the cheque<\/li><li>permitting patrons to exchange blank cheques made payable to Crown in exchange for chips used to gamble at the Melbourne casino.\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The actions available to the VGCCC include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>imposing a fine of up to AU$100m<\/li><li>varying the casino licence<\/li><li>issuing a letter of censure to Crown and directing it to take certain steps.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>VGCCC chair&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/victorias-vgcc-appoints-fran-thorn-as-first-chair\" target=\"_blank\">Fran Thorn<\/a>&nbsp;said: \u201cThe Casino Control Act establishes restrictions on Crown\u2019s financial interactions with its patrons. These restrictions are vital because <strong>they protect patrons from gambling beyond their means <\/strong>and guard the Melbourne Casino against criminal influence and exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Royal Commission found that Crown adopted practices involving the use of blank cheques and bank cheques that breached these important restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In July,&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/vgccc-starts-disciplinary-proceedings-against-crown-melbourne\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the VGCCC<\/a>&nbsp;initiated disciplinary proceedings against Crown Melbourne for breaches of its responsible gambling obligations. The VGCCC is currently considering Crown\u2019s response to these disciplinary proceedings and will make a further announcement once it has completed those considerations.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two months earlier, the regulator\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-melbourne-fined-au80m-in-vgccc-disciplinary-action\" target=\"_blank\">fined Crown Resorts<\/a>\u00a0AU$80m (US$57.4m) over using a China Union Pay process to avoid Chinese currency restrictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between 2012 and 2016,&nbsp;<strong>Crown Melbourne allowed its customers to use a credit or debit card to access funds&nbsp;<\/strong>to play games at Melbourne casinos. It earned an estimated AU$32m in revenue from AU$164m in transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last October,&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-resorts-found-unsuitable-to-operate-crown-melbourne\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission<\/a>&nbsp;officially declared&nbsp;<strong>Crown Resorts unsuitable to hold a licence for its Crown Melbourne casino.&nbsp;<\/strong>However, the casino operator kept its licence through the appointment of a Special Manager to oversee the casino for the next two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following that two-year period, the VGCCC will decide whether Crown is suitable to regain the privilege of holding the Melbourne Casino licence unsupervised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Victoria introduces new laws to restrict gambling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Victorian Government has introduced 12 more measures from the 33 recommendations made by\u00a0<strong>Judge Raymond Finkelstein<\/strong>, who led the state of\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/victorias-vgccc-to-start-disciplinary-proceedings-against-crown\" target=\"_blank\">Victoria\u2019s inquiry into Crown Resorts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result of new legislation, every Australian resident who uses the pokies must set a maximum loss limit before playing. Crown will be given 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<p>Other new measures include limiting cash transactions to $1,000 per 24 hours in a bid to crack down on money laundering. Meanwhile, Crown will be made to pay for the cost of regulating the casino and 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crown Melbourne has been sanctioned by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) for its bank and blank cheques practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":15504,"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 sanctioned Crown Melbourne for illicit bank and blank cheque practices, constituting a breach of credit extension prohibitions under the Casino Control Act. This marks the third regulatory action this year against Crown Resorts, following prior fines for responsible gambling failures and circumventing Chinese currency restrictions. Concurrently, Victoria is implementing new legislation, including mandatory pre-commitment for pokies and stricter cash transaction limits, further tightening the regulatory landscape for casino operators.","focusai_entities":"Crown Melbourne, Crown Resorts, Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC), Fran Thorn, Judge Raymond Finkelstein","focusai_location":"Australia, Victoria, Melbourne","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.95), product_ux (0.75), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Crown's License Future?","query":"What specific governance framework enhancements and operational rectifications must Crown Melbourne demonstrate to the VGCCC to regain unsupervised license privilege after the two-year Special Manager period?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent Impact?","query":"How will the VGCCC's stringent enforcement actions against Crown, particularly regarding credit extension and AML, influence regulatory compliance expectations and risk assessments for other licensed operators in Victoria and across Australia?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[14657,23911,24153],"class_list":["post-33184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-crown-resorts","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-victorian-gambling-and-casino-control-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33184","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=33184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33199,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33184\/revisions\/33199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}