Crown flips on junkets
CROWN Resorts has pledged to stop dealing with “junket operators” unless they are unanimously approved by state gambling regulators.
The casino giant’s concession on junket operators — gambling promoters who bring in foreign high rollers — comes as it faces calls for it to be stripped of its licence for Sydney’s Barangaroo casino.
The concession was announced on Tuesday as Crown’s legal team fronted a NSW inquiry to explain why the company’s past dealings with junket operators — some of which have alleged links to organised crime — should not render it “unsuitable” to operate its Barangaroo casino.
The NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority will this week decide whether the Barangaroo casino should be allowed to open next month as Crown plans.
The scheduled opening date for the $ 2bn property is well before the inquiry is due to report its findings in February.
Crown announced in September it would suspend all dealings with junket operators until June 2021.
On Tuesday the Melbourne- based company said it would permanently cease dealing with all junket operators unless they were licensed or approved by gaming regulators in Victoria, Western Australia and NSW.
“Crown will only recommence dealing with a junket operator if that junket operator is licensed or otherwise approved or sanctioned by all gaming regulators in the states in which Crown operates,” Crown said in a statement.
Crown has previously defended junket operators as an established and accepted part of international casinos.
At the NSW inquiry, Crown’s counsel, Perry Herzfeld SC, told Commissioner Patrica Bergin that the decision was “a very significant development” for the questions over whether Crown should be able to operate in Sydney.
“Crown accepts that there have been shortcomings in its junket due diligence processes,” Mr Herzfeld said.
The NSW inquiry has detailed numerous alleged links between Macau and Hong Kong- based junket operators used by Crown and Asian organised crime groups, and money laundering operations.
In one instance the inquiry heard that financial crimes regulator the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre in 2017 warned Crown that the head of the Sun City junket was considered “politically exposed” due to links to Asian triads.
Last month Crown chairman Helen Coonan conceded her claim the gambling giant had “robust” junket vetting processes was not the right choice of words.
Mr Herzfeld told the inquiry the process was “not, not robust”, that Ms Coonan’s opinions were not shared by all directors on the Crown board, and that the new junket policy was not an admission that the prior policy was “not robust”.
Ms Bergin interjected and said that kind of argument was not helpful to Crown.
“I don’t see how this can assist you — you see this is a suitability process for the purpose of identifying willingness to co- operate,” she said.