Australia’s Crown Casino accused of illegal tampering on pokie machines

Australian land gambling group Crown Resorts is currently attracting significant and not very flattering media coverage over allegations by three former employees that the company illegally tampered with pokie machines on the Melbourne premises.

The allegations have been turned into a political issue by anti-gambling independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie, who raised the matter in the federal parliament and called for a thorough investigation by the Victorian regulator and possibly criminal action by the federal police.

Crown Resorts has denied the allegations, in which the three whistleblowers claim there were systemic breaches of regulations concerning slot machines. Crown shares plunged over 8 percent as Wilkie’s parliamentary attack coverage gathered momentum this week.

On Wednesday Crown called on Wilkie to immediately provide information relating to the allegations to the authorities.

Our readers may recall that Crown suffered damage earlier this year when its high roller recruiting team in China was arrested and the company cut short Chinese operations.

Wilkie supported his parliamentary attack with a 30-minute PokieLeaks.org recorded video interview with the three whistleblowers. Local press reports are that the identities of the three men making the allegations were heavily disguised through image pixilation and voice altering.

“These are very serious allegations,” Wilkie said, adding that he couldn’t verify the veracity of the allegations but that these were serious enough to be made public.

“They could indicate systemic issues in the broader poker-machine industry right around the country,” he suggested.

The whistleblowers reportedly allege that some Crown slot machines were adjusted to allow buttons to remain pressed down to continuously generate bets, contravening Victorian state laws. The testimony also claims that some buttons were disabled to reduce the choice of consumers as to how much they bet.

There are also allegations that Crown does not take sufficient precautions against drinking and drugs consumption on the premises, and does not report incidents of violence to the authorities. The whistleblowers additionally claim that employees of the Victorian regulator did little to act against Crown for violations, merely asking that the machines be returned to regulatory compliance.

In a statement Wednesday the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation said it is aware of the allegations made by Wilkie and will investigate the claims.

“We take any claims of this type extremely seriously,” the regulator said.

Crown operates about 2,600 gaming machines at its resorts in Melbourne. Overall, slot machines contribute about 40 percent of Crown’s domestic revenue, according to local experts. Crown reported normalised EBITDA of A$828 million for the year ended June 30 – down about 3.3 percent year-on-year.

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