Crown not even bothering
Australia’s Crown Resorts is in trouble yet again. During a royal commission in Victoria into Crown’s gaming license on Wednesday, Adrian Finanzio, counsel assisting with the inquiry, called Crown’s responsible gambling policies “an example of the most irresponsible approach to gambling.”
As reported by WAtoday, Crown allowed some gamblers to sit at video gambling machines like slots and video poker for as long as 18 hours before telling them to take a break. It took 12 hours for staffers to even check on customers.
In 2019, one customer gambled for 34 straight hours before any Crown employee stepped in. And in that case, the person was only asked to chill out for eight hours, rather than the 24 hours that is actually laid out in Crown’s policies.
Amazingly, Crown actually reduced the number of hours someone could gamble from 24 to 18 last year, but Sonja Bauer, the company’s general manager of responsible gambling said that employees had “discretion” as to how exactly to enforce the rule.
During the hearing, Bauer explained that “responsible gaming advisors” received notifications after customers played for 12, 15, and 17 consecutive hours. They were then supposed to “interact or observe,” with the word “or” doing the heavy lifting in that phrase.
Beyond what Bauer said, a private advisor, according to WAtoday, “has given private evidence to the royal commission that it was standard practice to only approach gamblers after 12 hours if they were showing other “observable signs” of gambling harm such as visible distress.”
Will supposedly make changes
Bauer admitted that Crown’s policies didn’t jive with responsible gambling research. One study from seven years actually referenced Crown’s code of conduct at the time that warned that three hours of gambling could be a warning sign. But Bauer still said, “I wouldn’t accept it’s an irresponsible approach when there are some measures in place to actually measure the time of play.”
In an effort to save its license, Crown Resorts has said that it will restrict customers to 12 hours of gambling with a 24-hour period with an observation or intervention at eight and ten hours.
A New South Wales inquiry already determined in February that Crown was not suited to hold a gambling license. As a result, it has not been able to open the casino portion of its $1.7 billion resort in Sydney.
The inquiry detailed instances of money laundering at Crown casinos, business with junket operators with links to organized crime, and Chinese operations that resulted in staff members getting arrested several years ago.
In March, Crown said it would end junkets and implement cashless gaming systems in order to eliminate the possibility of money laundering.
