Western Australia's Gaming and Wagering Commission (GWC) has recommended that Crown Perth retain its casino licence, according to trade publication Casino.org. The commission's opinion, reported as delivered on Tuesday, follows what the report describes as significant corporate governance upgrades at the Burswood resort casino complex and at its parent, Crown Resorts. The venue is a licensed, land-based casino. It is separate from the offshore online casino sites that are prohibited for Australians under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.
Background to the finding
Crown Perth was ruled unsuitable to conduct casino games in 2022. According to the source, that followed similar inquiry findings a year earlier about Crown Sydney and Crown Melbourne. The Western Australian inquiry reached conclusions parallel to those in New South Wales and Victoria, which found Crown was not fit to hold a casino licence. The report says those inquiries found the company facilitated money laundering, allowed criminal junkets to operate and failed to address gambling harms.
The findings left the future of Crown Resorts uncertain. Casino.org describes it as the largest operator in an Australian casino duopoly with Star Entertainment. US-based private equity firm Blackstone then acquired Crown. According to the report, Blackstone paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and invested heavily in governance and culture, in what the article calls a $6.6 billion rescue. The article says Crown Melbourne's and Crown Sydney's licences were reinstated last year. It also says those two venues were hit with almost half a billion dollars in fines combined.
What the minister said
Racing and Gaming Minister Paul Papalia said the venue had been overhauled through a refreshed corporate and governance structure, enhanced employee screening, and training to promote ethical behaviour. He also pointed to actions to minimise gambling harm. On financial crime, he said:
"Crown Perth has implemented adequate and legislatively compliant anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing measures to prevent criminal infiltration at the Perth Casino such as transaction monitoring and technology to flag suspicious patrons with cash above certain thresholds." — Paul Papalia, Racing and Gaming Minister
Papalia also addressed the scale of past misconduct in Western Australia. According to the report, he said there was never any evidence of direct money laundering of the kind seen in Melbourne. He said there was potential for money laundering and for terrorism financing to have been transacted, but no evidence that those crimes had been committed. These are the minister's characterisations, as quoted by Casino.org.
Oversight continues
The outcome is not an unconditional clearance. The report says the GWC has indicated that Paul Steel, the independent monitor who has overseen the casino since 2022, will continue to have access to the property "to ensure lawful and responsible operations". Crown Resorts, however, once again has full control of the Crown Perth business.
The article also says that, unlike Crown Sydney and Crown Melbourne, Crown Perth was not subject to a financial penalty from the Western Australian process. The source refers to this as the Western Australia Royal Commission not imposing a fine, though it does not explain the difference between that body and the GWC.
The source does not say whether the recommendation has been formally accepted or when any final licence decision will take effect. It does not specify the conditions attached to the monitor's continuing role, the transaction thresholds used for flagging patrons, or how the harm-minimisation measures are measured. It also does not provide an independent assessment of the changes beyond the minister's statements and the commission's reported opinion. Those details would be needed to judge how well the reforms protect patrons in practice.
The source also notes that James Packer sold his remaining 37 per cent stake in Crown Resorts to enable the Blackstone acquisition.