Crown inquiry LIVE updates: Crown found to be not suitable of holding Barangaroo casino licence

Summary

  • The NSW government has released a long-awaited report into the future of Sydney’s second casino licence following an 18-month royal commission-style inquiry headed by former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin.
  • The Barangaroo gaming licence was granted in 2014 and is held by Crown Sydney Gaming, a subsidiary of Crown Resorts Limited. The controlling shareholder of Crown Resorts is billionaire James Packer.
  • Commissioner Bergin inquired into whether Crown Sydney was a “suitable person” to hold the licence and whether Crown Resorts was a suitable person to be a “close associate”. She found they were not.
  • Commisssioner Bergin’s terms of reference explicitly referred to reports by Nine, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age which raised allegations that Crown Resorts, its agents, affiliates or subsidiaries “engaged in money-laundering; breached gambling laws; and partnered with junket operators with links to drug traffickers, money launderers, human traffickers, and organised crime groups”. 
  • Commissioner Bergin deals in the report with the steps that could be taken to make Crown a “suitable person” to hold the licence.

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‘Full and wide-ranging forensic audit’ required: report

By Michaela Whitbourn

The Bergin report has made the significant finding that Crown Sydney Gaming is not a “suitable person” to hold Sydney’s second casino licence, and its parent company Crown Resorts is not a “suitable person” to be a close associate.

The report then sets out steps that might be taken to make it suitable to hold the licence for Crown’s hotel and casino complex at Barangaroo.

The head of the inquiry into the future of the licence, former NSW Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin, says the NSW gaming regulator, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA), said ILGA could have “no confidence” that Crown Sydney or Crown Resorts “could be rendered suitable [to keep the licence] without a full and wide-ranging forensic audit of all of their accounts to ensure that the criminal elements that infiltrated [two bank accounts linked to Crown] have not infiltrated any other accounts”.

“Any audit must be on the premise that the main aim is to ensure that the casino operations are free from criminal influence and exploitation.”

Crown Sydney not a ‘suitable person’ to hold casino licence: report

By Michaela Whitbourn

The Bergin report into the future of Sydney’s second casino licence, held by Crown Resorts subsidiary Crown Sydney gaming, has made damning findings.

As we have noted previously, billionaire James Packer is the controlling shareholder of Crown Resorts with a 36 per cent stake in the company via his private company.

The report says Crown Sydney is not a “suitable person” to continue to give effect to the Barangaroo restricted gaming licence.

It also says Crown Resorts is not a “suitable person” to be a close associate of the licensee.

This is not the end of the matter, however, as the report deals with changes that would be required to make them suitable, dealt with in a separate section of the report. We will bring you those recommendations shortly.

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Casino report tabled in Parliament

By Michaela Whitbourn

Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello, who is responsible for regulating gambling in the state, has just tabled the Bergin report in State Parliament. We will be able to reveal the findings shortly.

‘More to say’ shortly: Dominello

By Michaela Whitbourn

Ahead of the release of the Bergin report today into the fate of Crown Resorts’ Barangaroo casino licence, NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello, who is responsible for gaming regulation, had this to say.

“At the heart of the report is the relationship between organised crime, money laundering and gambling, and more importantly what steps we can do to protect the community against some of these sinister elements,” he said.

Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello, right, at a press conference on Tuesday.
Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello, right, at a press conference on Tuesday.Credit:Nick Moir

“I’ll have more to say after I’ve tabled the report but that’s all I’ll stay about the Crown report [now].”

Mr Dominello foreshadowed that the report would be tabled in NSW Parliament after Question Time in the legislative assembly, which kicks off at 2.15pm.

The future of Packer’s grand plan

By Michaela Whitbourn

What will happen after the NSW government releases former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin’s long-awaited report on Crown’s Barangaroo casino licence?

The answer may not be clear for a while. The NSW gambling regulator, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA), will meet this month to consider her report. It can choose whether to accept and implement her recommendations.

NSW inquiry Commissioner Patricia Bergin.
NSW inquiry Commissioner Patricia Bergin.Credit:Australian Financial Review

Depending on the report’s findings and recommendations, and ILGA’s response, Crown could lose the casino licence completely, or have strict conditions imposed. This has flow-on effects for the viability of the $2.2 billion hotel and casino project, which is underpinned by the casino operation.

Changes to Crown’s management and board could be required, and controlling shareholder James Packer may have to sell down some of his 36 per cent holding in Crown Resorts to lessen what counsel assisting the inquiry has called his “deleterious impact on the governance” of the company.

The chairman of ILGA, Philip Crawford, said in November he was “not comfortable” with Crown opening gaming operations at Barangaroo, slated for December, until the Bergin inquiry was completed.

Crown Resorts opened its “six-star” Barangaroo hotel, restaurants and bars at the end of December, without gaming operations and with little fanfare.

What is this inquiry about?

By Michaela Whitbourn

In August 2019, the NSW gambling regulator, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA), established a royal commission-style inquiry into whether Crown Sydney Gaming Pty Limited, a subsidiary of Crown Resorts Limited, remained a “suitable person” to hold the Barangaroo casino licence granted in July 2014.

Billionaire James Packer’s private company Consolidated Press Holdings holds a controlling stake in Crown Resorts, with a 36 per cent shareholding.

James Packer giving evidence at the NSW casino inquiry in October.
James Packer giving evidence at the NSW casino inquiry in October.

Crown was set to open the gaming floors of its $2.2 billion resort at Barangaroo in late December. In November, ILGA blocked it from commencing gaming operations, after the group admitted to the inquiry that criminals probably laundered money at its Melbourne and Perth casinos.

The terms of reference for the Bergin inquiry were amended during the course of the inquiry.

The terms of reference referred explicitly to reports by the Nine Network, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age – all of which are owned by Nine Entertainment Co – from July 27, 2019, and said they had “raised various allegations into the conduct of Crown Resorts and its alleged associates and business partners and raised questions as to whether the Licensee remains a suitable person to hold a restricted gaming [licence]“.

The terms of reference said the allegations included “but are not limited to, allegations that Crown Resorts or its agents, affiliates or subsidiaries: (a) engaged in money-laundering; (b) breached gambling laws; and (c) partnered with junket operators with links to drug traffickers, money launderers, human traffickers, and organised crime groups”.

Among other things, Commissioner Bergin was tasked with inquiring into and reporting on whether Crown Sydney Gaming was a “suitable person” to continue to hold the Barangaroo casino licence, and whether Crown Resorts, its parent company, was a “suitable person” to be a close associate of the licensee.

If the answer to either of those questions was no, Commissioner Bergin was to consider what, if any, changes would be required to make them suitable.

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Welcome

By Michaela Whitbourn

Hello and welcome to our live blog of the findings of the long-running NSW inquiry into Crown Resorts’ casino licence at Barangaroo.

I’m Michaela Whitbourn and I will be reporting on the major findings of former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin’s lengthy report into Crown’s suitability to keep the gaming licence for its new $2.2 billion Barangaroo hotel and casino.

The report is being released by the NSW government today after an 18-month investigation, which included a break during the COVID-19 pandemic and a change to the inquiry’s terms of reference.

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Source: Thanks smh.com