GAMBLING REGULATORS PONDERING CROWN’S FATE
GAMBLING regulators cannot yet say if James Packer’s Crown Resorts will face review after employees were jailed in China for gambling offences.
The Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Regulation says it has been updated by Crown, which is based in Melbourne, on the case in China.
The regulator said it was “currently considering the outcome of this matter”.
Its counterpart in New South Wales, Liquor & Gaming NSW, said it had closely monitored the latest developments in relation to the Crown employees in China.
“At this stage, it is too early to speculate on what action, if any, may be considered in regard to any relevant issues for the NSW regulatory framework,” a spokesman said.
Crown has casinos in Melbourne and Perth that lure rich gamblers from China, and also has a gambling licence for its $2 billion luxury hotel and high-rollers casino under development at the Barangaroo development precinct in inner Sydney.
That business is expected to open in 2021.
Three Australian employees of Crown Resorts received prison sentences for gambling-related offences in a Shanghai court on Monday.
Crown, whose controlling shareholder is Mr Packer, will pay $1.7 million in fines on behalf of 16 employees after 19 current and former staff pleaded guilty to charges of illegal promotion of gambling on the Chinese mainland.
Crown’s head of international VIP gambling, Jason O’Connor, from Melbourne, was sentenced to 10 months in prison and fined 2 million renminbi, or $390,000. Australian-Chinese dual nationals Jerry Xuan and Jenny Pan were sentenced to nine months jail and fined $78,000 and $39,000 respectively.
The other Crown employees involved were Chinese and Malaysian. They were taken into custody by Chinese authorities last October and were charged this month.
The sentences take into account time spent in jail since their arrest.