Inquiry Finds Crown Resort Unsuitable For License

Following a gruelling month long investigation into Crown Resorts application to receive a license for their A$2.2 Billion Barangaroo casino resort, has found them unsuitable.

The final report by the NSW’s Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) that was presented to the State Parliament on Tuesday found that the company need to make “sweeping cultural changes if it wanted to apply for a license in the future.”

Heading the inquiry, Commissioner Patricia Bergin — a former chief judge in the NSW Supreme Court said that Crown Resorts casinos in Melbourne and Perth were found to have serious issues with money laundering and also possible links to international organised crime.

It was also said the company had regulatory arrangement failings which needed to be addressed.

With the new resort in Sydney which has already opened its hotel and restaurants it now remains to be seen what happens next. The report is not final and needs to be adopted by the ILGA but this is believed to be a formality.

The “core problems” which made Crown unsuitable, the report said, were the operator’s “poor corporate governance” and “deficient risk-management structures.”