It’s now becoming a ritual: a special inquiry or royal commission uncovers flagrant law-breaking by casino operators, facilitation of money laundering, a lax attitude to problem gambling, links to organised crime, and “regulators” so emasculated and captured that they pose zero threat to the well-connected, politically influential corporation that owns the casino. But the casino is allowed to continue operating, as long as it commits to makes significant changes and improve its practices. The possibility that a casino might actually be shut is never seriously contemplated.
The Bergin review in NSW set the standard: it found, after an extraordinary series of revelations about misconduct and poor corporate governance, that Crown was not a suitable licensee in that state, but given Crown hadn’t opened its Sydney facility — the result of an unsolicited bid to build it from James Packer to the NSW government — the report made recommendations to “render the Licensee and Crown suitable persons”.
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.