Crown Casino

Crown Melbourne Limited (Crown) holds the only Victorian licence to operate the Melbourne Casino. The casino licence(opens in a new window) has been granted until November 2050.

Crown Melbourne is a subsidiary company of Crown Resorts Limited (Crown Resorts), which was acquired by the Blackstone Group in 2022.

Suitability of Crown since Royal Commission

Following the 2021 Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence (RCCOL), Crown came under intense scrutiny. As a result, the Government:

• Created a Special Manager for the Melbourne casino with unprecedented powers of control over Crown and a mandate to report to the VGCCC on Crown’s actions to remediate the failures identified by the RCCOL
• Enhanced VGCCC’s powers to monitor the casino and increased the maximum penalty we can impose on Crown from $1 million to $100 million.

These changes were brought about in the Casino Legislation Amendment (RC Implementation and Other Matters) Act 2022(opens in a new window). In March 2024, after considering the Special Manager’s 4 reports and a range of additional information, the Commission announced it was clearly satisfied that Crown was suitable to operate the Melbourne casino and that it was in the public interest for the licence to continue in force.

Read about the Crown suitability decision(opens in a new window).

Melbourne Transformation Plan

Our expectation for Crown’s ongoing transformation continues with the Melbourne Transformation Plan. Since April 2024 the VGCCC issued 3 written directions to Crown, to ensure it executes the Plan:

The Transformation Plan specifies Crown’s transformation objectives, priorities and outcomes, milestones, and timelines for three years up to 31 December 2026.

Crown’s progress on its Transformation Plan is critical to its ongoing reform and will be central to our review of Crown’s suitability in the next Periodic Investigation into the Casino Operator which will conducted in 2027.

We expect a full transformation to a world standard example of excellent practice in the delivery of casino services. To this end, the Commission has provided Crown with a clear statement of its expectations, which states that Crown must operate in ways that go beyond strict legal obligations and:

• Act with integrity and be honest, trustworthy and transparent
• Be accountable and cooperative
• Comply with and uphold the spirit, and not just the letter, of the law
• Actively prevent, and operate free from, criminal influence or exploitation
• Prevent the harmful impacts of gambling by acting decisively and promptly whenever they see, or suspect harm is occurring.

The VGCCC continues to carefully monitor Crown to ensure any failings identified by the Royal Commission are not repeated.

Crown is required by the VGCCC to publish a Public Status Report (PSR) twice a year on its progress towards meeting the commitments in its Melbourne Transformation Plan (MTP).

Crown’s PSR are available on their website(opens in a new window).

The VGCCC has provided this link for interested parties and does not sponsor or endorse any material on websites linked from or to this website. Our full disclaimer is available here(opens in a new window).

Reinforcing our regulation of Crown

Crown’s privileged position as the exclusive casino operator in Victoria brings with it an obligation to be a leader in providing a safe gambling experience, free from criminal influence.

The VGCCC expects Crown to actively prevent gambling harm, deter criminal activity and deliver on its social and legal obligations to the community. We (VGCCC) will watch and act to ensure this occurs.

Our regulatory approach to Crown has been significantly strengthened following the 2021 Royal Commission, and even further in the light of the 2024 Suitability Decision - our powers have been increased, resourcing expanded and the VGCCC has a dedicated division whose focus it is, to regulate the Casino’s operations. This means you can be confident that we will ensure Crown never again places the pursuit of profit over the wellbeing of people.

We will insist that the ongoing transformation of Crown’s culture continues, as outlined in its ongoing transformation plan, to ensure Crown operates safely, fairly, and free from criminal activity.

Meanwhile, here are some of the ways the VGCCC are ensuring Crown meets the expectations of the Victorian public:

Monitoring

We use and analyse intelligence, data monitoring and other information to spot and target high-risk areas for criminality and gambling harm at the casino. We look out for emerging issues and trends so that we are ready to act on anything that could cause gambling harm or enable illegal activity.

We have strengthened our collaboration and information sharing with key partner agencies so that we have access to the most up-to-date intelligence. These agencies include:

• Victoria Police
• AUSTRAC (Australia’s financial intelligence agency)
• the Australian Federal Police
• interstate and international regulators.

Detailed data analysis can alert us to irregularities that might indicate criminal activity, such as potential money laundering and drive further regulatory activity including investigations. The data we examine includes:

• Gambling expenditure data, such as daily poker machine turnover and casino games turnover data and scans for any irregular activities.
• Transactional data such as suspicious matter reports, large cash transactions, international funds transfers to identify risks of money laundering or other criminal activity.

We also monitor activities across the casino and have access to various casino databases and records, including access to all CCTV cameras recording Crown’s operations.

Penalties and enforcement

The VGCCC has much stronger enforcement powers following the Royal Commission. Our powers include the ability to issue mandatory directions (including requiring independent third-party reviews), accepting, enforceable undertakings by the casino operator and issuing penalty infringement notices.

We also now have the power to impose fines of up to $100 million per breach (up from $1 million).

Details of penalties and disciplinary fines (including the reasons for our decisions) are published on our website.

Reducing gambling harm

VGCCC and the Victorian Government are taking steps to reduce the potential for harm to people who gamble at Crown. We are also ensuring Crown acts proactively to prevent harm.

These steps include:

• Reducing how much money people can lose on poker machines by:
  - introducing mandatory carded play and mandatory pre-commitment
  - including introducing mandatory ‘breaks in play’ after 3 hours and 6 hours
  - removing the continuous play function (the ability to hold down a button and continue gambling) on poker machines and reducing the spin rate
• Ensuring Crown cannot reintroduce campaigns such as their Red Carpet and Bingo programs, which targeted vulnerable community members such as the elderly
• Implementing training for our Casino Division team members, to help them identify patrons who are displaying signs of gambling distress.

Crown has been required to prevent the harmful impacts of gambling by acting decisively and promptly whenever its personnel sees or suspects harm is occurring.

The VGCCC has integrated a focus on gambling harm prevention into all elements of regulating Crown, including utilising technology to capture ‘red flags’ for risks of gambling harm. We have expanded our monitoring and surveillance capabilities, with access to the extensive network of CCTV cameras to monitor gaming activity and detect signs of patrons experiencing gambling harm.

Our Position Statement on Harm Minimisation(opens in a new window) makes it clear to Crown and other gambling operators that they have a duty to act wherever harm is identified or suspected.

Deterring criminal activity

Crown must keep the casino free from criminal influence or exploitation. This includes acting on any sign of money laundering and financial crime, and implementing technology and processes to mitigate the risks.

Since the Royal Commission, we’ve enhanced our approach to ensure Crown operates free from criminal influence or exploitation. These actions include:

• Harnessing technology to capture and analyse a range of intelligence and data to identify ‘red flags’ for increased risks of criminal activity such as money laundering.
• Expanding our monitoring and surveillance capabilities so that we now have access to a large network of CCTV cameras around the casino.
• Investing to ensure we have employees with the skills to detect what can be highly complex criminal activity. These skills include investigations, auditing, financial analysis, data analysis and intelligence.
• Launching a tip-off program so that members of the public can anonymously report possible criminal activity at the casino.
• Strengthening our collaboration and information sharing with partner agencies, including with Victoria Police and AUSTRAC.

‘Junket’ programs for high rollers have been banned and we are restricting and tightly monitoring any programs for ‘premium players’ - people who gamble large sums of money - demanding a transparent and robust assessment of players.

We undertake our own intelligence, open-source and international checks to assess a premium players general reputation in terms of character, honesty, and integrity along with validating Crowns enhanced customer due diligence assessment, including financial capacity and residential status.