{"id":9645,"date":"2020-09-03T22:18:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T22:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=9645"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:09:00","slug":"crown-exec-says-bosses-blinkered-by-profits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-exec-says-bosses-blinkered-by-profits","title":{"rendered":"Crown exec says bosses “blinkered” by profits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The former head of the operator’s Chinese business says the company should have known the dangers of promoting gambling in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Crown Resorts’ top man in China at the time company employees were arrested has admitted Crown should have known the dangers of promoting gambling in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason O\u2019Connor, the former head of Crown’s Chinese operation, said he had found it difficult to convince his bosses of the need to \u201ctemper their expectations\u201d regarding profits from Chinese VIPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the high profits from the operation “may have blinkered” leaders in relation to the risk of conducting such a businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told the inquiry: \u201cI thought at the time there was something of a disconnect between the business volumes and profits our business unit was able to deliver relevant to what was expected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) is conducting a public inquiry into the 2016 episode in which 19 Crown execs were arrested<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, O’Connor among them, for promoting gambling in China, where it is illegal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Connor and his team were recruiting Chinese high rollers and flying them to Australia to gamble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to the inquiry, O’Connor said: “I didn\u2019t fully appreciate the Chinese legal system doesn\u2019t operate the way the Western system does.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019ll be the first to concede that we overlooked some of the signals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authority is to decide whether the company is fit to keep the casino licence for its AU$2.2 billion casino in Sydney’s Baranagroo area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inquiry has heard that two bank accounts used by Chinese patrons to disguise the fact that money was being used for gambling were not monitored<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by the Crown’s anti-money loundering team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former head of the operator’s Chinese business says the company should have known the dangers of promoting gambling in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Former Crown Resorts China head, Jason O\u2019Connor, admitted the company should have recognized the risks of promoting gambling in China, where it is illegal, and that high profits may have obscured these dangers. This testimony is part of an ongoing New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority inquiry into Crown's suitability to retain its Sydney casino license, following the 2016 arrests of 19 executives for illegal promotion and revelations of unmonitored bank accounts used for gambling. The inquiry highlights significant governance and regulatory compliance failures within Crown Resorts.","focusai_entities":"Crown Resorts, Jason O\u2019Connor, New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA)","focusai_location":"China, Australia, Sydney, Baranagroo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"License Revocation Impact","query":"What are the projected financial and operational impacts on Crown Resorts if the New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority revokes its Sydney casino license, considering its AU$2.2 billion investment?"},{"label":"Governance Framework Review","query":"How will this inquiry influence the broader governance frameworks and risk assessment protocols for other international iGaming operators seeking to expand into regulated or grey markets?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[227,14657,20326],"class_list":["post-9645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-china","tag-crown-resorts","tag-illegal-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9662,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645\/revisions\/9662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}