{"id":35149,"date":"2022-11-07T10:10:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T13:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=35149"},"modified":"2026-04-23T03:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T06:15:06","slug":"vgccc-fines-crown-melbourne-us77-2m-for-serious-misconduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/vgccc-fines-crown-melbourne-us77-2m-for-serious-misconduct","title":{"rendered":"VGCCC fines Crown Melbourne US$77.2m for serious misconduct"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The VGCCC has imposed two fines against Crown Melbourne for breaches of its Responsible Service of Gambling obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Australia.-&nbsp;The <strong>Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission<\/strong>&nbsp;(VGCCC) has announced disciplinary action against <strong>Crown Melbourne <\/strong>for failing its Responsible Service of Gambling obligations. The regulator has imposed <strong>two fines <\/strong>totalling <strong>AU$120m (US$77.2m)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Royal Commission into the casino operator and Licence found that Crown Melbourne:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>breached its code of conduct for the Responsible Service of Gambling <\/strong>over many years by consistently failing to intervene to prevent gambling harm allowing customers to often gamble for long periods without a break, sometimes for more than 24 hours, and<\/li><li><strong>failed to comply with a statutory direction by the regulator <\/strong>to take all reasonable steps to prevent patrons from using plastic picks and other devices to simulate \u2018automatic play\u2019 when gambling on specific electronic gaming machines (or \u2018pokies\u2019).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The casino operator has accepted that disciplinary action <\/strong>should be taken and that reforms must continue to address these and other obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>VGCCC chair <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/victorias-vgcc-appoints-fran-thorn-as-first-chair\" target=\"_blank\">Fran Thorn<\/a> said: \u201cFor a long time, Crown failed in its legal and moral obligation to ensure it provided its gambling products and services in a manner which minimised potential harm to its patrons, their families, friends and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe record fines totalling AU$120m that we have imposed on Crown today will send a powerful message to Crown that the Commission will not tolerate misconduct that exposes our community to increased risks of gambling-related harm.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese were not isolated breaches. They were part of a pattern of extensive, sustained and systemic failures by Crown that spanned roughly 12 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe urge all gambling licence holders to read this decision. This disciplinary action also sounds a warning to all in the Victorian gambling industry that we expect them to do everything they can to minimise the harmful impacts of gambling. The Commission will be resolute in pursuing our new requirement to regulate for harm minimisation, and the industry can expect further action from the Commission on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the second time the VGCCC has used its stronger enforcement powers to take disciplinary action against Crown for conduct uncovered by the Royal Commission.&nbsp;In May,&nbsp;it <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-melbourne-fined-au80m-in-vgccc-disciplinary-action\" target=\"_blank\">fined Crown Resorts<\/a>&nbsp;AU$80m (US$57.4m) for using a China Union Pay process to avoid Chinese currency restrictions.<\/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>In October last year,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-resorts-found-unsuitable-to-operate-crown-melbourne\" target=\"_blank\">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 two years. Following that period, the VGCCC will decide whether Crown is suitable to regain its Melbourne Casino licence unsupervised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The VGCCC has imposed two fines against Crown Melbourne for breaches of its Responsible Service of Gambling obligations.<\/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 imposed two fines totaling AU$120m on Crown Melbourne for systemic breaches of its Responsible Service of Gambling obligations, including failing to prevent prolonged gambling and allowing 'automatic play' simulation. This disciplinary action, following a Royal Commission, underscores the regulator's intensified focus on harm minimisation and sends a strong warning to all Victorian gambling licence holders regarding compliance. Crown's licence suitability remains under review, with a Special Manager overseeing operations.","focusai_entities":"Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission, VGCCC, Crown Melbourne, Crown Resorts, Fran Thorn, Royal Commission into the casino operator and Licence, China Union Pay","focusai_location":"Australia, Victoria, Melbourne","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Crown's Licence Future?","query":"What specific operational and governance reforms must Crown Melbourne demonstrate to the Special Manager and VGCCC to secure an unsupervised licence renewal post the two-year oversight period?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent Impact?","query":"How will the VGCCC's \"regulate for harm minimisation\" mandate and this record fine influence the compliance strategies and investment in responsible gambling technologies across other Victorian licence holders?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[14657,24153],"class_list":["post-35149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-crown-resorts","tag-victorian-gambling-and-casino-control-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35149","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=35149"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35190,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35149\/revisions\/35190"}],"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=35149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}