Crown Resorts hit with VGCCC $120M penalties

Since it was established, the Victorian Gambling Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) has not been sitting idly on its thumbs. In fact, the VGCCC has been busy looking into matters that it holds particularly important. One such is the most recent decision to issue two fines to the Crown Melbourne property over failures to uphold the Responsible Service of Gambling obligations, the regulator reported in an official statement on Monday.

The fines total AU$120m ($77m) and they reflect the seriousness of the discovered offenses, the regulator noted. According to the VGCCC, Crown Melbourne was found in breach of two very specific rules. The first one has to do with the fact that patrons were allowed to actually gamble for very long periods of time without any intervention or reaction on behalf of the casino.

In some cases, patrons could play for more than 24 hours without taking breaks. This was a particular breach of Crown Melbourne’s responsible gambling obligations, the regulator explained. The second fine had to do with the fact that customers were known to use plastic picks and other devices to simulate an autoplay feature so that they would not manually press and bet not each round.

The lack of autoplay is sometimes used to give people time to think whether or not they want to place the next bet. Both breaches have been deemed particularly serious and have resulted in the $120m penalty.

This is not the first time the property has been fined either, as the VGCCC previously issued a similar AU$80m ($52m) fine in a related case that has to do with the China Union Pay process, which effectively saw Crown Melbourne staffers knowingly log gambling spending as hotel expenses. The total fines that the property has received now amount to AU$200m.

According to VGCCC Chairperson Fran Thorn the latest enforcement action should have one distinct purpose – to send a clear message to any other company that thinks that it can not meet the gambling standards set out by the VGCCC or the local government. Thorn is hopeful that the size of the latest penalty will discourage others from pursing similar practices.

In the case of Crown Melbourne, the VGCCC claims that these offenses were ongoing for a period of 12 years, and they were systematically overlooked. Moving forward, though, no such breach of regulatory standards may occur.

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