Punters at Melbourne’s Crown Casino will be forced to pre-commit to losses and time spent on poker machines as part of reforms introduced following the royal commission’s findings.
Key points:
- The Victorian Government has introduced laws requiring people to set a cap on their pokie losses at Crown Melbourne
- One advocate says the measures should apply to all venues in the state
- A set of other measures aim to combat money laundering
The 12 measures are the latest of 33 recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licensing, which found an “alarming catalog of wrongdoing” at Victoria’s only casino.
The Melbourne casino, Victoria’s largest single-venue employer, has been able to keep its license as long as it meets a number of conditions, including implementing reforms.
American company Blackstone recently completed the $8.9 billion acquisition of Crown’s operations in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Under legislation being introduced in Victoria today, all Australian casino residents must set a maximum limit on how much they are willing to lose before they start playing pokies.
Victorians lose more than $1.5 billion each year on shopping. (ABC News)
“This is a world first in a set of reforms,” Games Minister Melissa Horne said.
The technology to enforce the limit and track time and money spent does not yet exist.
The government will give Crown until the end of 2023 to have the mandatory pre-commitments in place, with the minister saying it “needs to be fully rolled out by the end of 2025 at the latest”.
The limit will be fully borne by the employer.
It calls for statewide pre-commitments
Gambling Reform Alliance chief counsel Tim Costello welcomed the news.
“This is a really historic day for the state government and therefore for the people of Victoria – to take back power over the Crown, which has completely dominated the landscape and dominated the terms of the engagement,” he said.
Gambling attorney Tim Costello says the move gives gambling customers better tools to avoid harm. (ABC News: Jeremy Story Carter)
He said he believed the pre-commitment system should apply to all venues in the state.
“You can link the same pre-commitment system to all pokies across clubs and hotels in Victoria so easily … greedy pubs and clubs with pokies have been fighting this for over a decade,” he said .
Crown Melbourne has about 2,600 pokie machines, about 10% of the 26,321 across the state. Government statistics show that more than $1.5 billion is lost statewide each year.
Asked if the limits were likely to be applied at other gambling venues, Ms Horne said the government was focused on implementing the royal commission’s recommendations.
The minister said there was no dollar figure or model attached to the mandatory pre-commitments to show how customers would be better off under the measure.
Other measures to deal with “money laundering activities”
Repeated breaches of money laundering rules and links to organized crime were identified at the royal commission.
Under the new measures, the use of cash will be limited to $1,000 per 24 hours to fight money laundering.
Crown Casino employs thousands of Victorians. (ABC News: Darryl Torpy)
The legislation will require users to use casino-issued cards and identification to play or receive winnings of more than $1,000.
“Again, this is a first for Crown Casino. And it’s aimed squarely at tackling money laundering activities,” Ms Horne said.
It builds on previously introduced measures requiring Crown to maintain only a single bank account for customers to deposit funds.
Other new rules include making the Crown pay the cost of regulating the casino, which the minister said was “only reasonable that for the extra level of scrutiny that the Crown requires, they should be able to pay for that as well”.
Any person or company that wants to own more than 5 percent of the casino operator or its holding company will need approval from the state’s new gaming regulator.
Crown has been contacted for comment.