MANDATORY PRE-COMMITMENT FOR PUBS AND CLUBS: CROWN

The troubled Crown Resorts empire is demanding new mandatory pre-commitment measures to be imposed on the casino apply to all licensed venues with gaming machines – starting with Victoria’s pubs and clubs.

Last week it was revealed the Andrews government will implement what was a core recommendation out of the Royal Commission into Crown last year, dictating a mandatory pre-commitment scheme will be implemented at the casino through legislation, this year.

Ray Finkelstein from the Commission recommended casino patrons should be forced to set daily, weekly or monthly time and loss limits to play the casino’s EGMs.

It was also suggested the scheme should prevent people playing machines for more than three hours without a break, more than 12 hours in a 24-hour period, or more than 36 hours through the course of a week.

Until now, Victoria’s government had only supported the recommendation “in principle” and said it was still subject to analysis and consultation.

Crown CEO Steve McCann retorted that if the objectives of mandatory pre-commitment are to provide a more responsible gaming environment and reduce the risk of money laundering, while details of the scheme remain unclear, he suggests it must be implemented beyond the casino or it “will simply divert that activity elsewhere”.

The outcry comes in the wake of Crown agreeing earlier last week to an $8.9bn takeover by US private equity giant Blackstone, which if the sale is approved by regulators, stands to take on any burden of the new regulation.

It’s suggested the offensive move is an attempt to mitigate this outcome, aiming to start a brawl between the Andrews government and the hotels and clubs associations.

The Australian Hotels Association dismisses the notion, stressing the MPC is Crown’s own doing.

“AHA strongly rejects any assertion that penalties imposed on Crown Casino, after a Royal Commission into non-compliance, should also be imposed on venue-based gaming operators,” AHA Vic CEO Paddy O’Sullivan offered to PubTIC.  

Victorian regulator data reports gaming takings of $2.7bn across the 26,300 EGMs in the state’s pubs and clubs, coming to an average of $103k each per year.

By comparison, the 2,628 machines in Melbourne’s Crown Casino took in $462m, averaging $176k per machine.