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Crown Melbourne fined $100,000 in Victoria
The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) has fined Crown Melbourne after an excluded gambler managed to gamble for nearly 15 hours without being noticed.
As stated by the VGCCC, the incident happened on October 31, 2024, when a person who was previously barred in August 2024 for welfare reasons entered and spent 15 hours in the casino without being approached by PlaySafe staff or detected by the surveillance systems.
Suzy Neilan, the regulator’s CEO, stressed that this shows the risks of not properly applying exclusion controls and blamed the casino for not addressing the weaknesses in monitoring and intervention processes correctly. Neilan added that exclusion tools are very important measures to create boundaries for vulnerable players.
Crown’s compliance record has been the target of regulators for some years now. The Victorian Royal Commission in 2021 and the Bergin Inquiry in New South Wales both found Crown unfit for holding an operator license at the time and mentioned governance failures and money-laundering risks.
After this, Crown made operational reforms and operated under special supervision for two years. They were also fined AUD120 million in 2022 and AUD450 million in 2023 by AUSTRAC.
The VGCCC stated that Crown has helped with the investigation and made changes in relocating facial-recognition cameras, as well as training staff who oversee casino access. This helps to show Crown’s commitment to improving and enhancing responsible gambling.
Neilan also assured that Crown Melbourne will do their best to implement exclusion procedures and prevent problem gamblers from entering the casino.
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