Ray Finkelstein, a former judge in charge of determining whether Crown Resorts should retain its licence to run its Melbourne casino has drawn comparisons between Crown’s position and that of a car thief asking to be left to their own devices. The former federal court judge made his statements amid submissions made by counsel for the company, Michael Borsky QC regarding Crown’s fitness to keep its licence.
The counsel for the commission, Adrian Finanzio, advised Finkelstein that his recommendation to the government should be that that the company have its license revoked.
Borsky put it to the commission that Crown had confessed to and apologised for its transgressions at the current inquiry and one that took place earlier in NSW. The allegations that the operator admitted to include failing to pay tens of millions in state taxes and turning a blind eye to money laundering conducted by its customers. Borsky stated that while these actions may make it, the company has promised to reform.
Finkelstein countered, stating that Borsky’s proposal that a monitor be appointed to oversee the running of the casino was “risk-free” for Crown, saying,
“You’d pay unpaid taxes, pay a few costs, but you don’t actually suffer any consequence, that is you can commit wrong for a decade, of various kinds, and come along and say, ‘Well, we’ve fixed it, so don’t worry about it’. If I was a car thief, and went to the criminal court and said, ‘I’m not going to steal a car again, don’t worry about it, take my word for it,’ and they just let me go, it’s really not how the system works, is it?”
“Not only is it not how the system works, it’s not what the public expects,” he continued.
Finkelstein argued that Crown Melbourne’s current state of profitability runs counter to the claim that the 12 500 jobs at the casino, which is the state’s biggest single-site employer, would be in jeopardy if the operator’s licence was cancelled.
“The choice might be between you running the casino or someone else running the casino, if it is a profitable business, the way industry works is that someone will always step in,” he remarked.
Borsky also pointed to the imminent resignation of Helen Coonan, Crown’s executive chair, before the end of the month and asked that she and Xavier Walsh, the Melbourne chief executive, should have no findings made against them.
The government of Victoria announced that it would be establishing a new regulator to combat criticism that the existing authority had failed to address the history of transgressions at Crown Melbourne.
Crown issued a statement to the stock exchange that revealed that Walsh would be stepping down from his position of Melbourne CEO on 20 August, but “will remain available to assist the company until his employment at Crown ends on 9 December 2021”.
It has been less than a year since Walsh assumed his role, after his appointment in December 2020.
“Crown will announce an interim appointment for the role of CEO Crown Melbourne following consultation with the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation,” the company said in the statement.
The Victorian government revealed that it intends to divide the VCGLR, coming within a hair’s breadth of creating a stand-alone regulator exclusively tasked with dealing with the embattled Melbourne casino. Victoria’s gaming minister, Melissa Horne, stated that the new Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission would create a division to deal with Crown in a manner that would “hold the casino to account”.
“That is the advice that we received, there are very few jurisdictions in the world that have dedicated casino regulators,” Horne said.
She continued, adding that this action would involve “undoing the failed experiment of the past” that combined liquor and gaming regulation in the same body and the new organisation would “focus on harm minimisation”.
The VCGLR released a statement saying that it would “continue to deliver high-quality regulation of the gaming and liquor industries without disruption to regulatory activity as the new regulator is established”.
Finkelstein’s report on the royal commission’s findings is expected to be published on 15 October.
