Crown against commissions on poker tournaments

The group has been battling for three years the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation regarding taxes on entry fees commissions.

Australia.- Three years ago, Crown Resorts started a battle with Victoria’s gambling regulator as the casino developer and operator disagrees on that fact that growing commissions earned on entry fees to poker tournaments should be taxed. The Andrews government said it was considering the issue, although the fifth review of the casino operators licence back in 2013 already highlighted the fight over tax on poker tournaments. It stated that there is an “ongoing issue relating to whether entry fees for poker tournaments should be included in the calculation of gross gaming revenue.”

The commissions usually are around 10 percent of the entry fee to poker tournaments, which have prize pools in the millions for the bigger events, like the Aussie Millions Poker Championship held every January with a prize pool of millions of dollars.

A Crown spokeswoman claims that “poker tournaments are not considered to be equivalent to other forms of casino gambling as the player does not play against the house, the player plays against other players.” She added that tournament fees provide funds for the prize pool and “also meet the costs of conducting and marketing the tournament. Poker tournaments are also conducted in pubs and clubs and they pay no gambling tax on poker tournament fees.”

Charles Livingstone, Monash University public health professor believes poker is gambling and its revenue should be taxed, just like other forms of gambling at the casino are taxed. “It’s not a charity,” he said. “If the regulator thinks they should pay tax on it they should pay tax and if they don’t pay tax you should prosecute them. Crown is too big to regulate, they get whatever they want.”