Crown casinos to launch online self-exclusion scheme for gamblers
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People with gambling problems will be able to ban themselves from Crown casinos over the internet instead of having to do so in person, as part of a wider overhaul of the group’s approach to harm minimisation.
Crown Resorts’ new safer gambling program also includes the establishment of a dedicated gambling policy team, which will monitor customer playing behaviour and create interventions to better prevent gambling harm from occurring.
Crown boss Ciaran Carruthers joined the business last year following an overhaul of Crown’s management, after a series of bruising inquiries into the company. Carruthers, who has led other global casino groups including Wynn Macau, said the new leadership of Crown was committed to making gambling safer, even if it meant less turnover in its casinos.
“I have been in this business for 34 years and I can tell you – no one does this,” Carruthers said.
“It is critically important to me that when I look at the long-term viability of this business that people see our resorts as entertainment to enjoy safely.”
Under the changes, customers will be able to block themselves from entering a Crown casino through a new digital self-exclusion portal. Those who wanted to ban themselves from Crown venues were previously required to visit, in person, a designated responsible gambling centre run by the group.
The group has also moved to cashless gaming at Crown Melbourne and Crown Sydney – a condition of its temporary gaming licences in NSW and Victoria– as well as introducing $10 maximum bet limits on poker machines at Crown Perth. The technological overhaul required to facilitate the changes has so far cost the business $13 million.
Carruthers pointed to changes Crown has already made which go beyond government regulation, such as encouraging customers to take breaks every three hours, as an indicator of its commitment to shifting problem gambling patterns.
The group said it wanted to establish advisory panels to work with state regulators and community groups to improve gambling harm education and share its research.
Carruthers conceded some aspects of its new approach to harm minimisation, called Crown PlaySafe, would not be welcomed by heavy gamblers. But he argued the changes would make the casinos more appealing to the general public.
Crown’s new head of gambling policy research, Dr Jamie Wiebe, said the most critical shift in the groups gambling policy was a move away from harm minimisation to prevention.
“We want to prevent a problem from ever happening,” she said.
The new program was unveiled just weeks after the Federal Court determined Crown will pay one of the biggest penalties in Australian corporate history to the financial crimes watchdog, after past anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism failings in its Perth and Melbourne casinos.
The $450 million fine is about five per cent of Crown’s last listed market capitalisation before it was taken private by Blackstone Capital for $8.9 billion in May last year.
In 2019, an investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes revealed Crown had been infiltrated by international criminal syndicates and money launderers.
Crown was forced to overhaul its board, management and procedures to satisfy the regulators, who approved a conditional licence for Crown to operate its Barangaroo casino in June 2022. The conditional licence is valid until the end of this year.
Carruthers said the integrated hospitality offerings at Crown meant the casino could afford to embrace the shift.
“I want people to enjoy the experience of our casinos whether they’re coming for dining, casino or retail. I’m fairly agnostic across which one of those experience or how many of those experiences you want to enjoy,” he said.
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